Illska Explained

Illska ('evil'), published by Mál og menning in 2012, is an Icelandic novel, the fourth by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. It won the 2012 Icelandic Literary Prize for fiction,^[1] and was chosen as best Scandinavian fiction by the French literary magazine Transfuge.^[2] The book has been widely translated and reviewed.

Summary

Illska is set around 2010. Its main characters are Agnes Lukauskaite, a second-generation Jewish immigrant from Lithuania researching far-right populism for her MA thesis in history at the University of Iceland; her boyfriend Ómar Arnarson, a graduate in Icelandic linguistics left unemployed by the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis; and Arnór Þórðarson, a PhD-student in history and a far-right activist, who becomes Agnes's love-interest later in the novel. The novel intercalates musings in the narratorial voice about racism and right-wing populism, along with an account of Agnes's grandparents' experience of the Holocaust from their home town of Jurbarkas.^[3]

Translations

• Illska, la maldad, trans. by Enrique Bernárdez (Xixón, Asturies: Hoja de Lata, 2018) [Spanish]
• Zlo, trans. by Daria Lazić (Zagreb: Oceanmore, 2018) [Croatian]
• Illska: To kako, trans. by Roula Georga Kopoulou (Athens: Polis, 2017) [Greek]
• Illska: le mal, trans. by Eric Boury (Paris: Métailié, 2015) [French]
• Böse, trans. by Betty Wahl and Tina Flecken (Stuttgart: Tropen, 2014) [German]
• Ondska, trans. by Anna Gunnarsdóttir Grönberg (Malmö: Rámus, 2014) [Swedish]
• Ondskab, trans. by Nanna Kalkar (København: Ordenes By, 2013) [Danish]

Notes and References

1. Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, 'Not The Knee-Jerk Reaction – Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl on Illska', The Reykjavík Grapevine, 12 March 2013; http://grapevine.is/culture/literature-and-poetry/2013/03/12/not-the-knee-jerk-reaction/.
2. Brynja, 'Heimska valin besti skandinavíski skáldskapurinn', Bæjarins besta (6 January 2017), Web site: Archived copy . 2017-03-21 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170322202821/http://gamli.bb.is/Pages/120/?NewsID=201563 . 2017-03-22 . .
3. Sólveig Ásta Sigurðardóttir, 'Landvistarleyfi í bókmenntaheiminum: Birtingarmyndir innflytjenda í íslenskum samtímaskáldsögum' (unpublished MA thesis, University of Iceland, 2015), p. 37; http://skemman.is/is/item/view/1946/21030.