Swanfolk

Swanfolk

Summary

'Magical and disturbing' Adam Thirlwell

An astonishing, mind-bending novel about a woman discovering a community of swan-people from one of Iceland's greatest writers.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE ICELANDIC WOMEN'S LITERATURE PRIZE*

In the not-too-distant future, a young spy named Elísabet Eva is about to discover something that will upend her life.

Elísabet likes to take long solitary walks near the lake. One day, she sees two creatures emerging from the water, half-human, half-swan. She follows them through tangles of thickets into a strange new reality.

Pulled into the monomaniacal, and often violent, quest of the swanfolk, Elísabet finds her own mind increasingly untrustworthy. Soon, she is forced to reckon with the consequences of her involvement with these unusual beings, and a past life she has been trying to evade.

'Ómarsdottir's skills as a poet and playwright are evident' Helen Oyeyemi, New York Review of Books

Reviews

  • 'Magical and disturbing' Adam Thirlwell
    Adam Thirlwell

About the author

Kristín Ómarsdóttir

Kristín Ómarsdóttir is the author of novels, poetry, short stories and plays. She has won numerous awards including the DV Cultural Award for Literature, the Icelandic Women's Literature Prize, and the Icelandic national prize for playwright of the year. She has been nominated four times for the Icelandic Literary Award and twice for The Nordic Council Literary Prize, most recently in 2019.
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