2010 Literary award: Thorarinn Leifsson and Jon Hallur in the company of city officials, the jury and the publisher.On the 21th of april 2010 Thorarinn Leifsson was awarded the Reykjavik city education council children books prize for "Grandmother's Library" which he also illustrated. The award for best translation of a children's book went to Jon Hallur Stefansson for the translation of "Lee Raven - Boy Thief" by Zizou Corder in to icelandic.

City Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir handed out the awards in a prestigious ceremony at the Höfdi mansion (Reagan and Gorbachev met here in 1986). Among guests were the winners of the National Reading Competition who read aloud from the awarded books. This is the 38th time the governors of education of Reykjavik award writers and translators for outstanding children literature to raise awareness of the importance of good literature when bringing up children. Awards Jury 2010 consisted of Þórdís K. Pétursdóttir, Felix Bergsson and Lilja Margrét Möller.

Comments from the jury: "Thorarinn Leifsson has succeeded in writing a solid, original, funny and not least educating story. "Grandmother's Library" is therefore an excellent choice when the aim is to inspire children to read good books."

The big fartAn unprecedented no-fly zone imposed across Europe following a huge fart in Iceland caused travel chaos for over a million air passengers. Airspace stretching from Ireland to Finland, including airports in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, was closed following the shart (shitty fart) of a vulcano in Eyjafjallajokull in south-east Iceland which sent a cloud of bad smell across some of the world's busiest flight paths.

By Tine Maria Winther, Politiken book editor, Reykjavik

In the three storey bookshop on Laugavegur, the main street of Reykjavik "Fathers big secret" is ready for Christmas season.
The children's book about siblings whose father is a cannibal is number eight on the bestseller list, and author Thorarinn Leifsson is quite happy, he says as he fetches me from the entrance of the book store in his green Nissan Micra.
The interview was almost cancelled, first the author had Swine flu, then he got a blod clot in his leg.
"How is the leg? I enquire as i take a seat in the Micra.
"How do you know about that?", he replies.
"I have been in iceland since last night …".
"I see", he replies. "News travel fast up here."

Thórarinn Leifsson gained impressive coverage in the Danish newspaper Politiken in the middle of december 2009 on account of his children's book Leyndarmálið hans pabba (Father's Big Secret): not only was there a two-page interview in the paper's literary supplement, but Leifsson's drawings also graced the front pages of both the main paper and the literary supplement. The Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið reported Leifsson's reaction: “I think I'm in shock, I didn't realise it would be as big as this [...]. I would be satisfied with this kind of coverage once every ten years.” His latest book Bókasafn Ömmu Huldar (Grandmother's Library) will be published in Denmark in the autumn.

• Interview in english
• Interview in danish PDF
• Danish web version

(Text loosely based on Fabulous Iceland news)

Grandmother’s Library (October 2009)

Albertina lives in a peculiar world. There are no books and the special educational machines in school only teach about loan interests rates.
The Internet has been prohibited for years and the Gold Bank has gained control of most of the world. Finally grownups start to disappear one by one.
That's when Grandmother Huld turns up with an enormous library of books and dangerous knowledge. From now on nothing stays the same.

Success!Hallucinant firecracker, pure icelandic madness, amusing read, well done, incredibly funny …

These are but a few examples from the numerous good reviews since Fathers Big Secret was released in Denmark on 28th may this spring.

Politiken, Denmark's by far most important cultural newspaper brought a review by Steffen Larsen, a well known critic.

The german newspaper Sozialistische Tageszeitung reviewed Fathers Big Secret
in a special Frankfurt Book Fair supplement. The book will be on sale in Germany next week.

Farvel og tak mine danske venner. Det islandske finansmirakel er slut. Vi lukker og slukker.
Goodbye my Danish friends. The Icelandic financial miracle is over. We are closed.

This picture is the most visited item on this site these days.
I wonder why.