“This grand Icelandic epic is one of my favorite novels. Steeped in myth and darkly comic, the story involves an improverished sheep farmer’s heroic but ludicrous battle for independence from the large-scale farmers, bankers and politicians that exploit the peasants at every opportunity. The farmer’s absurd stubornness is matched only by his daughter’s struggle to be independent from him. The novel successfully balances scathing satire with the compassionate conviction that “the source of the greatest song is sympathy.”—Will, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland