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The Trilogy About the Boy Bundle includes the complete series by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton: Heaven and Hell, The Sorrow of Angels, and The Heart of Man. Venture into this captivating Icelandic trilogy for only $70! Apply coupon code TRILOGY at checkout to get free shipping.
“Stefánsson shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy.”—Eileen Battersby, TLS
In a remote fishing village, a boy and his best friend spend the lonely hours on shore reading and talking about poetry. When the friend, absorbed in a borrowed copy of Paradise Lost, forgets his oilskin one morning and the crew is unexpectedly caught at sea in a savage winter storm, tragedy strikes. Overwhelmed by grief—and his crewmates’ indifference to what has happened—the boy leaves the village, determined to return the book to its owner. The hardship and danger of the journey is of little consequence: he’s already resolved to join his friend in death. But when he reaches the town where he intends to end his days, he couldn’t have imagined the stories and lives he finds.
Navigating the depths of despair to celebrate the redemptive power of friendship, Heaven and Hell is an incandescent story of community, resilience, and love from one of Iceland’s most celebrated novelists.
“One of the consistent, foundational themes that comes out through this is that even among all the uncertainty and harsh beauty of existence, humans have a drive for survival even when all seems to be exhausted.”—World Literature Today
It’s been three weeks since the boy came to town, carrying a book of poetry to return to the old sea captain—the poetry Bárður died for. Just three weeks, but already Bárður’s ghost has faded. Snow falls so heavily that it binds heaven and earth together.
As the villagers gather in the inn to drink schnapps and coffee while the boy reads to them from Hamlet, Jens the postman stumbles in half-dead, having almost frozen to his horse. On his next journey to the fjords, Jens is accompanied by the boy, and both must risk their lives for each other, and for an unusual item of mail.
The second installment in Stefánsson’s elemental Trilogy About the Boy, The Sorrow of Angels is a timeless literary masterpiece that evokes the human struggle within the ferocious majesty of nature.
“An engrossing tale as brooding, unpredictable, and invigorating as the sea and storms affecting the characters’ lives.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
The final installment of Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s Trilogy About the Boy is a profound exploration of life, love and desire written with a sublime simplicity.
After coming through the blizzard that almost cost them everything, the postman Jens and the boy rest in a fishing community at the edge of the world to recover from their ordeal before returning once again to their village. But the northern summers are short and the sea is always present, and fish remain more valuable than men. And the chorus of drowned fisherfolk whisper tales full of silver, regret, smiles, and cruelty, in the hope that hidden within such stories are words that will free us from this tug of war between Heaven and Hell.
Set in the awe-inspiring wilderness of the north of Iceland, The Heart of Man concludes a modern Icelandic saga about a boy and the community of the living and dead who congregate around him, offering a profound exploration of life, love, and desire.
