If Björk was Iceland’s biggest cultural export at the turn of the century, that title has surely passed to Ragnar Jónasson. The crime writer burst onto British bookshelves ten years ago and has now sold five million books across 36 countries. Now fans of the Dark Iceland series are given a treat with the publication in English, for the first time, of Jónasson’s first substantial work, Fadeout, which is the prequel to the series and the first outing for policeman and general heart-throb Ari Thór. Fadeout appears in a special commemorative hardback edition, paired with Snowblind and with an introduction by Anthony Horowitz, himself no stranger to Cafethinking and, like Jónasson, more than willing to test the potential of the genre while intuitively understanding readers’ expectations.
Fadeout is quite long for a novella, clocking in at 151 pages, but it’s a brief read, with short chapters that keep you locked in. Years after his father disappeared, Ari Thór receives a credit card bill in his name. Does this mean that his father is still alive? His single-minded quest will take him to his father’s old haunts but also to London nightclubs and high end restaurants. It’s brilliant to have the chance to find another lens through which to view Ari Thór’s story (though you do have to wonder whether his relationship with Kristín was doomed from the start). As a debut, Fadeout shows a great deal of promise, especially in its construction, and if it feels a little less slick than Jónasson’s later work, with the London scenes too full of awe for the big city, we assume that Jónasson was pitching these paragraphs at the domestic Icelandic audience that he would have thought would be the main market for his work. Larissa Kyzer’s translation is crisp and fresh, just as Quentin Bates’s was for the novel that follows. If the TBR did not last from here to Doomsday, we’d take this opportunity to carry straight on with Snowblind and then straight on to reassess the entire Dark Iceland series. Hopefully a new generation of readers will take the opportunity.
It’s easy to forget just how big a deal Snowblind’s British publication would turn out to be. Back in 2015, Britain’s Scandimania, driven by seminal TV series such as Borgen, The Killing and The Bridge had just peaked. The fans of BBC FOUR’s Saturday 9pm slot needed something new. Snowblind was for sale at the Nordicana culture festival, and it generated a huge buzz. And I would go as far as to blame/thank Snowblind for ten years of book reviews on this blog, and by extension the transformation of the way in which I read for pleasure. Snowblind was the first novel to be reviewed here, paving the way for dozens since. Without Snowblind, and the support of a community of bloggers, writers and publishers, I would not have been introduced to some amazing titles over the last decade. I am very grateful for the support and encouragement of so many people within the community. Thank you.
Here is how Cafethinking covered Snowblind and other work by Ragnar Jónasson:
Thanks to Orenda Books for the review copy and to Anne Cater for the blog tour invitation.
Cafethinking 