Salka Valka

Halldor Laxness

Jun 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Stina Nielsen

About this audiobook

A fresh translation of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness's modernist masterpiece, Salka Valka. A feminist coming of age tale, an elegy to the plight of the working class and the corrosive effects of social and economic inequality, and a poetic window into the arrival of modernity in a tiny industrial town, Salka Valka is a novel of epic proportions, living and breathing with its expansive cast of characters, filled with tenderness, humor, and remarkable pathos. On a mid-winter night, an eleven-year-old Salvör and her unmarried mother Sigurlina disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of Óseyri, where life is "lived in fish and consists of fish." The two women struggle to make their way amidst the domineering, salt-worn men of the town and their unsolicited attention, and, after Sigurlina's untimely death, Salvör pays for her funeral and walks home alone, precipitating her coming of age as a daring, strong-willed young woman who chops off her hair, earns her own wages, educates herself through political and philosophical texts, and, most significantly, becomes an advocate for the town's working class, ultimately organizing a local chapter of the seamen's union.

About the author

Halldor Laxness was born near Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1902. His first novel was published when he was seventeen. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, and one of the outstanding novelists of the century, he wrote more than sixty books, including novels, short stories, essays, poems, plays, and memoirs.

Stina Nielsen is an accomplished actor and audiobook narrator. She has recorded over 175 audiobooks, has been nominated for several Audie Awards, and was named one of the "Best Voices of 2011" by AudioFile magazine.

Philip Roughton is an award-winning translator of Icelandic literature. His translations include works by many of Iceland's best-known writers, including Laxness, Jon Kalman Stefánsson, Bergsveinn Birgisson, Steinunn Sigurðardottir, and others.