Kate’s 2¢: ”Strange Shores” by Arnaldur Indridason

”Strange Shores” by Arnaldur Indridason

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   George Guidall has done a beautiful job of reading this book for the NLS.. Few of us would be able to pronounce all the Icelandic words for the streets, locations, and names.

   Arnaldur masterfully wove the two quests of the main character into an interesting, suspenseful story.  Once I got into the cadence of the language, I read/listened to the narrative arc to the very unusual finale.

From the WEB:

   This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Arnaldur.

   Arnaldur was born in Reykjavík on 8 January 1961, the son of writer Indriði G. Þorsteinsson. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands) in 1996. He worked as a journalist for the newspaper Morgunblaðið from 1981 to 1982, and later as a freelance writer. From 1986 to 2001, he was a film critic for Morgunblaðið.

His first book, Sons of Dust (Synir duftsins) came out in 1997, the first in the series with Detective Erlendur. The first two novels in the series have not yet been translated into English.[3] As of 2013, the series included 14 novels. Arnaldur is considered one of the most popular writers in Iceland in recent years — topping bestseller lists time and again.[citation needed] In 2004, his books were 7 of the 10 most popular titles borrowed in Reykjavík City Library[citation needed]. In 2006, his Erlendur novel Mýrin was made into a film, known internationally as Jar City, by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur.[4]

   Arnaldur’s books have been published in 26 countries and translated into at least 24 languages, including Arabic, Russian, Polish, German, Greek, Danish, Catalan, English, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Croatian, Romanian, Bulgarian, French, Serbian, Slovenian and Turkish .

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Strange shores DB99859

Arnaldur Indridason. Reading time: 8 hours, 33 minutes.

Read by George Guidall.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

In the wilderness of Iceland’s frozen East Fjords, Erlendur has come to confront the family tragedy that has haunted him all his life. But it is another missing-person story–the disappearance of Matthildur, lost in a snow-storm decades before–which reels him in. Originally published in Icelandic in 2010. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2013.

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