Salka Valka (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781953861245)

"This is a remarkable achievement and will hopefully lead to a revival of interest in an oft-overlooked literary genius." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

A fresh translation of Nobel Prize-winning author Halld 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 Salv and her unmarried mother Sigurl匤a disembark at the remote, run-down fishing village of ﾓseyri, 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 Sigurl匤a's untimely death, Salv 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.

"Nowhere in Laxness's novels is the conflict between the shining ideal of socialism and the dignity of individual people on plainer display than in Salka Valka... It never even occurs to Salka that the bastards might grind her down." -- Salvatore Scibona, The New Yorker

Author: Halldor Laxness
ISBN-10: 1953861245
ISBN-13: 9781953861245
Publisher: Archipelago Books
Language: English
Published: 06/07/2022
Pages: 630
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 6.50h x 5.80w x 1.70d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2021
Publishers Weekly 01/31/2022