Great-granddad and the Vanishing Glacier was created when Thórarinn Leifsson had been working for a few years as a tour guide on the South Coast of Iceland, including stories about his great-grandad in the narrative, partly to make sense of his new life. An illustrated book based on those stories took form over a period of two years. At the same time, the author was thinking about powerpoint presentations he had done in the past in schools in Denmark, Germany, and Italy. In his pre-tour guide life, Thórarinn did not talk much about his country; visuals in his earlier work are largely based on classic European painting and the storytelling on growing up in Reykjavík and Copenhagen. That whole outlook changed dramatically when Leifsson became a tour guide in the summer of 2018.
The author has strong roots on the rocky island, having worked as a cowboy on a farm close to Reykholt from the age of nine. He also wanted to tell a story with less text and get back to his origins as an illustrator and painter. So he bought an iPad Pro a year ago and started working on it.
Great-granddad and the Vanishing Glacier is available in major bookstores in central Reykjavík or directly from the author via mail. The book is available in Icelandic, English, German, and Spanish.