- Icelandic Literary Prize 2018 · Shortlist
Miss Iceland
Ungfrú Ísland
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (born 1958)
Translated by Brian FitzGibbon
English editions
In EnglishMiss Iceland
Pushkin Press · United Kingdom · 30 July 2020 · Paperback · 256 pages
Miss Iceland
Black Cat · United States · 16 June 2020 · Paperback · 256 pages
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Hekla Gottskálksdóttir, a farmer's daughter from the Dalir district named after the volcano, has wanted to be a poet since childhood. In 1963 she takes the bus to Reykjavík with a few manuscripts and Joyce's Ulysses, and on the way a man suggests she enter the Miss Iceland contest. In the city she waits tables at Hótel Borg and writes in secret, in a world where poets are men and women are expected to marry. Her closest friend is Jón John, a gay man.
AI-generated summary
About the book
- Form
- Novel
- Length
- 240 pages in the original
- Genres
- Historical (assigned by AI)
- Set in
- Iceland, 1963
- First published
- 2018 by Benedikt
- Author's age
- 60 when first published
- ISBN
9789935488312 (original)
9780802149237 (Black Cat, United States)
9781782275671 (Pushkin Press, United Kingdom)