Independent People

I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and skill - one of the best books of the 20th century. I can't imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time

Jane Smiley

Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed

Fay Weldon on her 'Book of the Century', Daily Telegraph

Marvellously fluent and unaffected... one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century

Times Literary Supplement

There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life

New York Review of Books

Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place

Chicago Tribune

Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed

Daily Telegraph

To read him is to discover an extra tastebud. He creates a world that belongs in another dimension, like the landscape of his country - familiar, strange, seen as in a dream... an endearing and unforgettable voice

Daily Telegraph

I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and skill - one of the best books of the 20th century. I can't imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time.

Jane Smiley

Laxness is a poet who writes to the edges of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: it is not possible to be unimpressed.

Fay Weldon, Daily Telegraph

Marvellously fluent and unaffected...one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century.

Carolyne Larrington, T.L.S

It moved me immensely

Barbara Kingsolver

A masterpiece

David Mitchell

I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and skill - one of the best books of the 20th century. I can't imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time

Jane Smiley

Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed

Fay Weldon on her 'Book of the Century', Daily Telegraph

Marvellously fluent and unaffected... one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century

Times Literary Supplement

There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life

New York Review of Books

Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place

Chicago Tribune

It moved me immensely

Barbara Kingsolver

A masterpiece

David Mitchell