Meet the author: Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Jón Kalman Stefánsson is considered one of Europe’s most original writers and with Yellow Submarine, his eleventh novel, he has added another remarkable book to his unique oeuvre. On Friday evening at the Passa Porta Festival, he will be one of five authors reading a new text on our festival theme, ‘Ghosts’. On Saturday you can get to know him better when he talks to literary critic Sofie Messeman.
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this event is accessible for people with mobility impairment
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yellow submarine
Stefánsson’s prose has a lot in common with music. Harmony and melody are just as important in his use of language and in the composition of his stories as chronology and logic. Atmosphere and tone take precedence over realistic depiction. It is no wonder that his latest novel is named after a song by The Beatles.
trauma
‘Dad picked me up in the Trabant. Halfway between Keflavík and Reykjavík, he suddenly cleared his throat and said: I’m afraid your mother’s dead.’ This poignant event determines the life of the protagonist, a boy who tries to soften the pain of missing his mother by escaping into his imagination. He sets off on a journey in his mind with a yellow submarine.
ghosts
There are guest appearances by Paul McCartney and the other Beatles of course, but also Rod Stewart and Johnny Cash, Jesus and his evil father, and lots of other ghosts who keep him company and feed his imagination. Ancient writings such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament also come to life in a book that reads deceptively smoothly, but whose complexity offers a lot of food for thought.
about the author
Jón Kalman Stefánsson (b. 1963) was born in Reykjavik. He is among the greatest European writers of our time. He writes novels set in Iceland in a poetic, evocative style. Stefánsson was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize and has won the Icelandic Literature Prize and the Per Olov Enquist Prize. In 2019 he was made a knight in the Order of the Falcon.
about the moderator
Sofie Messeman is a literary critic for Trouw, De Tijd and De Morgen, and an expert in Eastern European literature. She has been following and reviewing Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s work for years.
Organisation: Passa Porta
