Independent People

“Independent People” was first published in 1946, going on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for it’s author Halldor Laxness, often called the ‘Tolstoy of the North’ This humane epic novel is set in rural Iceland in the early twentieth century. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As she grows up, keen to make her own way in the world, Bjartus’ obstinacy threatens to estrange them forever. Although Laxness would go on to write countless other works for the following thirty years, this one counts as arguably the best of them all.