Storm Birds

by Karason, Einar; Bates, Quentin

• ISBN13: 9780857059420
• ISBN10: 0857059424
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2022-10-25
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Summary

"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR

"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR

In February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.

The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest.

The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.

Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates

Author Biography

"Einar Kárason (born November 24, 1955 in Reykjavík, Iceland) started his career writing poetry for literary magazines, and published his first novel in 1981. He is best known for his novel Þar sem djöflaeyjan rís, which was translated into English as Devil's Island (2000) and made into a film."

Quentin Bates made his escape from suburbia at the end of the seventies as a gap year turned into a gap decade spent in the north of Iceland. He worked ashore and at sea before returning to England and, once finally ashore for good, drifted by accident into journalism.
Finally the lure of fiction became too strong to resist. Sergeant Gunnhildur and the series of novels she features in have their origins in a deep affection for Iceland and its people, and an intimate knowledge of Icelandic society and its language, customs and quirks.
Today he divides his time between the north of Iceland and the south of England, translating books from Icelandic in addition to working on his own fiction.