A childhood in Iceland is the background to this powerful and evocative tale . Halldor Laxness's wistfully tender novel tells the tale of Alfgrim, an abandoned child, whose mother gave birth to him in the turf-and-stone cottage of Bjorn of Brekkukot, the fisherman, on the outskirts of what is now Reykjavfk. It evokes his boyhood and youth, spent at his grandparents' home in the early years of the twentieth century, a hospitable place where dignified understatement was the norm and where everything from a lumpfish to a Bible had a fixed price that never changed. "A poet's imagination and a poet's gift." -- The New York Times "[Laxness] is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: it is not possible to be unimpressed." --Fay Weldon, The Daily Telegraph -- Review Translated from the Icelandic by Magnus Magnusson. A childhood in Iceland is the background to this powerful and evocative tale. Halldór Laxness's wistfully tender novel tells the tale of Alfgrim, an abandoned child, whose mother gave birth to him in the turf-and-stone cottage of Bjorn of Brekkukot, the fisherman, on the outskirts of what is now Reykjavík. It evokes his boyhood and youth, spent at his grandparents' home in the early years of the twentieth century, a hospitable place where dignified understatement was the norm and where everything from a lumpfish to a Bible had a fixed price that never changed. Halldór Laxness was born near Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1902. He died in 1998. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. Halldor Laxness was born near Reykjavfk, Iceland, in 1902. He died in 1998. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.