Bragi Olafsson at 192 Books

Where: 192 Books, 192 Tenth Ave. (at 21st St.), NYC

(please RSVP by calling 212.255.4022)

Sturla Jón Jónsson, the fifty-something building superintendent and sometimes poet, has been invited to a poetry festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, appointed, as he sees it, as the official representative of the people of Iceland to the field of poetry. His latest poetry collection, published on the eve of his trip to Vilnius, is about to cause some controversy in his home country—Sturla is publicly accused of having stolen the poems from his long-dead cousin, Jónas. Translated from the Iclandic by Lytton Smith.

Bragi Ólafsson was born in Reykjavik and is the author of several books of poetry, short stories, and four novels, including Party Games, for which he received the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. The Ambassador was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller’s Award as best novel of the year.

“I’m convinced beyond any doubt that Bragi Ólafsson is among our best authors.” —DV Newspaper (Iceland)