{"title":"Jón Kalman Stefánsson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJón Kalman Stefánsson\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts deeply atmospheric narratives that explore the human condition against the stark beauty of Icelandic landscapes. His works, such as \u003cem\u003eHeaven and Hell\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eYour Absence is Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e, blend lyrical prose with profound reflections on life, love, and loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect novels rich in emotional depth and poetic detail, where the natural world intertwines with the characters’ inner journeys. Stefánsson’s storytelling invites contemplation and immerses you in a hauntingly vivid sense of place and mood.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"heaven-and-hell-by-jon-kalman-stefansson-9781849164061","title":"Heaven and Hell","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a remote part of Iceland, a boy and his friend Bárður join a boat to fish for cod. A winter storm surprises them out at sea, and Bárður, who has forgotten his waterproof as he was too absorbed in \u003cem\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/em\u003e, succumbs to the ferocious cold and dies. Appalled by the death and the fishermen's callous ability to set about gutting the fatal catch, the boy leaves the village, intending to return the book to its owner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe extreme hardship and danger of the journey is of little consequence to him—he has already resolved to join his friend in death. But once in the town, he immerses himself in the stories and lives of its inhabitants and decides that he cannot be with his friend just yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet at the turn of the twentieth century, \u003cem\u003eHeaven and Hell\u003c\/em\u003e is a perfectly formed, vivid, and timeless story, lyrical in style, and as intense a reading experience as the forces of the Icelandic landscape themselves. An outstandingly moving novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46711801315564,"sku":"9781849164061","price":26.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10282273482846.jpg?v=1754246986"},{"product_id":"your-absence-is-darkness-by-jon-kalman-stefansson-9781529418798","title":"Your Absence is Darkness","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Comparisons do not do justice to the complexity of Stefánsson's book, nor the uniqueness of his prose\" DANIEL MASON, author of \u003ci\u003eNorth Woods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Stefánsson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy\" EILEEN BATTERSBY, \u003ci\u003eTLS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A rich depiction of life, love and loss . . . Stefánsson is a writer of great scope and imagination\" RONAN HESSION, author of \u003ci\u003eLeonard and Hungry Paul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStefánsson's prose rolls and surges with oceanic splendour\" BOYD TONKIN,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpectator\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most celebrated novelists.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he's there or how he arrived. When a local woman offers to reunite him with her sister, he realises he's lost not only his bearings, but his memory as well: he doesn't recognise either woman, and as their stories unfold, he is plunged into a history spanning centuries and lives: a city girl drawn to the fjords by the memory of a blue-eyed gaze; a farmer's wife whose essay on the humble earthworm changes the course of lives; a pastor who writes to dead poets and falls in love with a stranger; a musician plagued by cosmic loneliness, who discovers that his life has been a lie; and an alcoholic transfixed by the night sky. Faced with the violence of destiny and the effects of choices, made and avoided, that cascade between lives, each discovers the cost of following the magnetic needle of the heart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn incandescent, audacious novel about the misfortune of mortality and the strange salve of time, \u003ci\u003eYour Absence is Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e is a spellbinding story of death, desire and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46833010245868,"sku":"9781529418798","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14609703482732.jpg?v=1758426392"},{"product_id":"my-yellow-submarine-by-jon-kalman-stefansson-9781529439380","title":"My Yellow Submarine","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStefánsson is a writer of great scope and imagination\u003c\/strong\u003e — Ronan Hession, author of \u003ci\u003eLeonard and Hungry Paul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA middle-aged man on a bench in a London park sees Paul McCartney sitting nearby.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eResolving to approach him, he gathers his thoughts and takes up the thread of his memories, marked by the Beatles' repertoire...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA mother plays \"Yellow Submarine\" on the harmonica to her seven-year-old son. She dies and leaves a void. A few months later, the Beatles split up. Another great loss in his life. A distant father, silent and abusive, does not help. Only when the boy finds shelter in his own yellow submarine — a room in the basement of the public library — does his life begin to take shape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom one of Europe's most compelling stylists, \u003ci\u003eMy Yellow Submarine\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful and life-affirming novel that sees a boy's lonely childhood linked to timeless stories and legends, the Beatles, and the austerity of life in Iceland in the eighties.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLike fellow Scandinavian authors Jon Fosse and Karl Ove Knausgaard, Stefánsson joins plainspoken depictions of daily life to intimations of mysticism, creating a spectral, haunted atmosphere\u003c\/strong\u003e — Wall Street Journal\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48347670675692,"sku":"9781529439380","price":31.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781529439380-my-yellow-submarine-1.jpg?v=1789183926"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/jon-kalman-stefansson.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}