Salka Valka

£10.99

Set at the start of the 20th century in a fictional Icelandic fishing village, ‘Salka Valka’ follows the struggles of a penniless woman and her daughter, Salka Valka. They must eke out an existence in a small, isolated world where everyone is controlled by a single wealthy merchant, and where everything in life revolves around fish. Follow Salka’s development from a precocious child to a fiercely independent-minded adult. Her romantic spirit is challenged when she starts a relationship with a firebrand idealist, Arnaldur. His fights against the trading company for human rights reflect the contemporary clash of social ideals in Iceland.

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SKU: 9781784877606 Category: Tags: ,

Description

A new translation of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness’s masterpiece

Late one snowy midwinter night, in a remote Icelandic fishing village, a penniless woman arrives by boat. She comes with her daughter, the young but gutsy Salka Valka. The two must forge a life in this remote place, where everyone is at the mercy of a single wealthy merchant, and where everything revolves around fish.

After her mother’s tragic death, Salka grows into a fiercely independent-minded adult – cutting off her hair, educating herself and becoming an advocate for the town’s working class. A coming-of-age story, a feminist tale, a lament for Iceland’s poor – this is the funny, tender, epic story of Salka Valka.

‘Laxness is a poet who writes to the edges of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot’ Daily Telegraph

TRANSLATED BY PHILIP ROUGHTON

Additional information

Weight 0.441 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 3.3 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

496

Language

English

Edition

|Reprint

Dewey

839.6934 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K