Heaven and Hell

by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Philp Roughton (translator)

“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 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.

Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2025

About the author

Jón moved to Keflavík when he was 12 and returned to Reykjavík in 1986 with his highschool diploma. From 1975 – 1982 he spent a good deal of his time in West Iceland, where he did various jobs: worked in a slaughterhouse, in the fishing industry, doing masonry and for one summer as a police officer at Keflavík International Airport. Jón Kalman studied literature at the University of Iceland from 1986 until 1991 but did not finish his degree. He taught literature at two highschools for a period of time and wrote articles and criticism for Morgunblaðið newspaper for a number of years. Jón lived in Copenhagen from 1992 – 1995, reading, washing floors and counting buses. He worked as a librarian at the Mosfellsbær Library near Reykjavík until the year 2000. Since then he has been a full time writer.

His first published work, the poetry collection, Með byssuleyfi á eilífðina, came out in 1988. He has published two other collections of poetry and a number of novels. His novel Sumarljós, og svo kemur nóttin (Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night) won The Icelandic Literature Prize in 2005. Three of his books have also been nominated for The Nordic Council's Literature Prize.

He was the recipient of the Per Olov Enquists Prize for 2011, awarded at the book fair in Gautaborg in September 2011.

Reviews

[Alice Judge · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book took me a minute to get through and was very different stylistically than what i normally read. it was very stream of consciousness but in a stiff voice. there were many beautiful passages that were incredibly quotable, however i found myself not entirely hooked on the plot due to its tone being so low the entire time. i enjoyed the end note the book left on and found it interesting to dive into icelandic literature and the experience of someone living so far north during this time period. made me think very differently about the cold and the different ways in which we feel chill

[Josh S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This writer is very good! And it’s about Iceland so it starts with three stars just for that.