Set in Reykjavík of the 1960s, The Lodger is steeped in the politics of its time, namely the opposition to Iceland’s inclusion in NATO and the presence of armed forces at the U.S. Navy station in Keflavík. As such, it is interesting to note how the book’s social criticism has warped through time without losing any of its sharpness.

“I had decided to take Mother to die in Amsterdam.” So begins Sölvi Björn’s rambunctious tale about a mother and son’s boozy journey to seek a mysterious (and quite possible dubious) miracle cure in the Dutch Lowlands.

Readers who fell in love with tenebrous detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir in The Darkness were somewhat perturbed by Ragnar Jónasson’s decision to portray her on the brink of retirement in her very first book. However, with the publication of The Island, the second book in the Hulda series, Ragnar’s plan has become evident.

In The Darkness, Ragnar Jónasson lays to rest stalwart Siglufjörður policeman Ari Þór (for now at least) and introduces us to a new and very different protagonist: Detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir; sixty-five, widowed and facing retirement.

In Ragnar Jónasson’s fifth book about Siglufjörður policeman Ari Þór, a young woman returns to her childhood home: the remote settlement of Kálfhamarsvík, known for its scenic lighthouse and the unique hexagonal basalt cliffs along its shore.

This third book in the Dark Iceland series takes a gruesome turn, with policeman Ari Þór of the (supposedly) quiet northern fishing village of Siglufjörður investigating a brutal murder.

In this selection Sigurður Pálsson’s poetry, translator Martin S. Regal has gathered a cross section of the work of one of Iceland’s foremost modern poets.

In the archives of an elite European university, a young PhD candidate stumbles upon a 365-year-old diary entry that offers proof of the world’s first documented professional female artist. For the young woman, it is the chance of a lifetime; an opportunity to establish her career at a time when society is ripe for rethinking women’s role in history.

Hanna, a young art historian who has recently concluded her studies in Amsterdam, returns to Iceland to take up a position at a small gallery in Reykjavík. After all this time away, the city feels unfamiliar to her, and the nation seems caught up in a craze of high stakes and high finance.