Advent

So skillful – simultaneously light and polished – that Gunnarsson manages to communicate everything without our even noticing. All he does is simply create an atmosphere for us to feel, to inhale - to experience for ourselves – Jón Kalman Stefánsson, author of Fish Have No Feet
This beautiful story with its inspirational message is too spontaneously human, too universal in its truth to be capable of being dated… A drama of heroic endurance…for all or any time * New York Times Book Review, 1940 *

Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975) grew up on a farm in the Fljotsdalur district of East Iceland and went on to become one of the most popular novelists in Denmark and Germany. His career began with his first novel, Af Borgsl gtens Historie (translated into English as Guest the One-Eyed), which was published in 1912-1914 and was adapted for cinema in 1919, the first Icelandic writing ever to be made into a film. During the next two and a half decades, Gunnarsson wrote numerous novels, short stories, poems and plays. His books were printed in many countries though his popularity was concentrated in Denmark and Germany. Ships in the Sky made it to sixth place on the New York Times bestseller list in 1938. Advent, also titled The Good Shepherd, is perhaps his most enduring book and is still widely read today.

Philip Roughton was born in the US and now lives in Iceland. He is an award-winning translator of modern Icelandic literature, having translated works by numerous Icelandic writers, including the Nobel prize-winning author Halldór Laxness.

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