Independent People
Halldór Laxness’s novel of Bjartur of Summerhouses, an Icelandic sheep farmer determined to be beholden to no one after years of servitude. His stubborn fight for independence costs his family dearly. The book was central to the Nobel Prize Laxness won in 1955.
Recommended by 1 Person
Alison Wolf
Independent People is the book that has just bowled me over in the last couple of years, more than anything else I’ve read. It is incredibly moving, about a poor Icelandic farmer who does not want to be dependent on anyone for anything. And that is his overriding value – a very classic value of small, self-supporting peasant farmers. They have this integrity and courage as well as this drive to independence.
Interview · February 2010
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