Fish have no Feet

Fish Have No Feet

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017.
Keflavik: a town that has been called the darkest place in Iceland, surrounded by black lava fields, hemmed in by a sea that may not be fished. Its livelihood depends entirely on a U.S. military base, a conduit for American influences that shaped Icelandic culture and ethics from the 1950s to the dawn of the new millennium.

It is to Keflavik that Ari – a writer and publisher – returns from Copenhagen at the behest of his dying father, two years after walking out on his wife and children. He is beset by memories of his youth, spent or misspent listening to Pink Floyd and the Beatles, fraternising with American servicemen – who are regarded by the locals with a mixture of admiration and contempt – and discovering girls. There is one girl in particular he could never forget - her fate has stayed with him all his life.

Layered through Ari's story is that of his grandparents in a village on the eastern coast, a world away from modern Keflavik. For his grandfather Oddur, life at sea was a destiny; for Margrét its elemental power brings only loneliness and fear.

Both the story of a singular family and an epic that sparkles with love, pain and lifelong desire with all of human life.   Fish have no Feet is a novel of profound beauty and wisdom by a major international writer.

By the author of the acclaimed trilogy, Heaven and Hell, The Sorrow of Angels and The Heart of Man; you can read a review of Fish have no Feet from the Irish Times:

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/fish-have-no-feet-by-j%C3%B3n-kalman-stef%C3%A1nsson-translated-by-philip-roughton-1.2813844