THE CRITIC AND OTHER STORIES by Ólafur Gunnarsson
Now available from Cajun Mutt Press!!!
THE CRITIC AND OTHER STORIES is a gripping collection of 13 gritty short stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat! Some readers may even find some of the material disturbing. Each story sparks a different emotion, touching on a wide range of topics. Featuring tales of bitter love, hard life lessons, imminent death, business trip savages, assault on a critic, a serial killer novelist, crime family disputes, religion, politics, and more. Narrated from the point of view of various characters in and around the district of Reykjavík.
This book is translated from Icelandic by David McDuff and the Author except for “The Nazi” by Philip Roughton and “The Wrath of Jehova” by Sola Bjarnadottir O ́Connell. “Death Comes At Daybreak,” and “Into the Fire” are translated by Steven Meyers
The cover art is a painting titled “Head of Medusa” by Caravaggio. Commissioned as a ceremonial shield by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte in 1598.
Ólafur Gunnarsson became a full-time writer after publishing his first novel in 1978. In 1970 he published his first collection of poetry. Later he published an acclaimed trilogy: The Trolls Cathedral 1992. (English translation in 1996, nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award a year later), Potters Field in 1996 and The Winter Journey in 1999. Ólafur went on to write more novels, among them; The Ax and the Earth 2003, for which he received the Icelandic literary prize. Ólafur also wrote a series of children’s books about a whale that can fly. The first one, The Beautiful Flying Whale was published in 1989 and nominated for the Nordic Children‘s Literature Award. Ólafur lives and works a few miles outside of Reykjavik. He is the Icelandic translator of Jack Kerouac. His two-part novel The Painter & Sinner was published in 2012 and 2015. From 2013 – 2018 Olafur was a consultant on the TV show Vikings.
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