Thanks to the Jolabokaflod, books still matter in Iceland; they get read and talked about. Excitement fills the air. Every reading is crowded; every print run is sold.

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• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  Being a writer in Iceland, you get rewarded all the time: People really do read our books, and they

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  In Iceland, book lives matter in every sense of that phrase: The shelf-life of the book, the lives

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  Everything is very expensive in Iceland, so I got some things done in India in the two months I was

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  I'm trying to write about serious issues, about Iceland's journey into modernity, about the soul of

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  Iceland is a rich country, but in the early 21st century, this prosperity got to our heads, and in

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  My three years in Manhattan were sort of my university years. I was learning by myself, and it was

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  Most early Icelandic paintings are landscapes.

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  We have to save ourselves from ourselves. We have to minimize the effect our own politicians can ha

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  For us Icelanders, the Sagas are like the Bible, only much better.

• Hallgrimur Helgason:

  Like many writers, I'm usually more interested in reading about authors than their actual works. We