Description
In 1635, a harsh Iceland—darkened by superstition, poverty, and violence—becomes the stage for a strange, luminous saga told through the memories of Jónas Pálmason, a poet and self-taught healer branded heretical and exiled to a barren island. As he recounts his uncanny cures, his battles with the uncanny, and the brutal consequences of fear, his life is shadowed by catastrophe, including the loss of his children and a massacre that reverberates beyond its moment. Blending myth, history, and hallucinatory lyricism, this modern epic explores the collision between science and belief, the fragility of compassion, and the way communities turn suffering into ritual and punishment. With Sjón’s distinctive, lyrical storytelling—intense, enigmatic, and often darkly comic—Jónas’s voice makes the seventeenth century feel startlingly alive, inviting readers to see the world anew.
Available Editions
paperback
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Published Jan 1, 2013
155 pages
ISBN: 9780374709945
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Details
First Published
2011
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón.