Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

'A terrific read...an extraordinarily accomplished novel' Independent

'Kaleidoscopic and mesmerising, comic and poignant' TLS

In this magical evocation of a vanished age, a poet and self-taught healer is banished in 1635 to a barren island off Iceland - a place darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty.

With only a purple sandpiper for company, Jónas Pálmason retraces his path to exile, recalling his exorcism of a walking corpse, the massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers and the deaths of three of his children.

But amid the cacophony of Copenhagen he will find hope and, finally, recognition of his enlightened ideas.