Born 1963 · Iceland
Icelandic Literary Prize 2025 · Shortlist
Title translated by AI:“The Heaviest Element”
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 62 when first published
Poetry · 125 pages
AI-generated summary:Poems on science and the divine, travel and the devilish, the present day and grief, which together with longing is the heaviest element.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2024 · Shortlist
Title translated by AI:“Celestial Bodies Above the World's Edge”
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 61 when first published
Novel · 358 pages · Historical, Love
AI-generated summary:In 1615 the priest Pétur of Meyjarhóll writes a letter, report or indictment to make sense of events that have shaken the remote district of Brúnasandur and the lives of those he loves.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2017 · Shortlist
Title translated by AI:“Ásta's Story”
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 54 when first published
Novel · 443 pages · Family, Love
AI-generated summary:Sigvaldi lies on a concrete pavement as his family's story runs through his mind, above all that of his daughter Ásta, named after a heroine of Laxness before she was born.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2015 · Shortlist
Eitthvað á stærð við alheiminn
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 52 when first published
Novel · 351 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:The family saga begun in 'Fish Have No Feet' continues, moving between Norðfjörður in the past and present-day Keflavík by way of the Miðnesheiði heath.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2013 · Shortlist
Fiskarnir hafa enga fætur
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 50 when first published
Novel · 381 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:The story of one family across the twentieth century and into the present, moving between the eastern fjord of Norðfjörður and Keflavík, called the blackest place in Iceland.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2011 · Shortlist
Hjarta mannsins
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 48 when first published
Novel · 363 pages · Love, Coming of age · Himnaríki og helvíti, book 3
AI-generated summary:An old Arabic medical book says the human heart has two chambers, happiness and despair, so that one can love two people at once; the boy of two earlier novels finds that his conscience says otherwise.
Icelandic Literary Prize 2005 · Winner
Sumarljós, og svo kemur nóttin
Jón Kalman Stefánsson · 42 when first published
Short stories · 249 pages · Love
AI-generated summary:In a small village in the west of Iceland, one inhabitant after another wanders helplessly through the treacherous back alleys of the heart.