When the Americans make an offer to buy land in
Iceland to build a NATO airbase after World War
II, a storm of protest is provoked throughout
the country. The airbase provides Laxness with
the catalyst for his astonishing and powerful
satire. Narrated by a country girl from the
north, the novel follows her experiences after
she takes up employment as a maid in the house
of her Member of Parliament. Marvelling at the
customs and behaviour of the people around her,
she emerges as the one obstinate reality in a
world of unreality. Her observations and
experiences expose the bourgeois society of the
south as rootless and shallow and in stark
contrast to the age-old culture of the solid and
less fanciful north. A witty and moving satire
on politics and politicians, Communists and
anti-Communists, phoney culture fiends, big
business and all the pretensions of authority,
Laxness' masterpiece of social commentary is as
relevant today as when it was written in 1948