Codex 1962 by Sjn

Codex 1962 by Sjn

Longlisted for the 2019 PEN America Translation Prize and the 2019 Translated Book Award

Spanning eras, continents, and genres, CoDex 1962―twenty years in the making―is Sj n's epic threepart masterpiece

Over the course of four dazzling novels translated into dozens of languages, Sj n has earned a global reputation as one of the world's most interesting writers. But what the world has never been able to read is his great trilogy of novels, known collectively as CoDex 1962―now finally complete.

Josef L we, the narrator, was born in 1962―the same year, the same moment even, as Sj n. Josef's story, however, stretches back decades in the form of Leo L we―a Jewish fugitive during World War I who has an affair with a maid in a German inn; together, they form a baby from a piece of clay. If the first volume is a love story, the second is a crime story: L we arrives in Iceland with the claybaby inside a hatbox, only to be embroiled in a murder mystery―but by the end of the volume, his clay son has come to life. And in the final volume, set in presentday Reykjav k, Josef's story becomes science fiction as he crosses paths with the outlandish CEO of a biotech company (based closely on reality) who brings the story of genetics and genesis full circle. But the future, according to Sj n, is not so dark as it seems.

In CoDex 1962, Sj n has woven ancient and modern material and folklore and cosmic myths into a singular masterpiece―encompassing genre fiction, theology, expressionist film, comic strips, fortean studies, genetics, and, of course, the rich tradition of Icelandic storytelling.

Born in Reykjav�k in 1962, Sj�n is the author of the novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone, and CoDex 1962, for which he won several awards, including the Nordic Council's Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize. He has also been short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and his work has been translated into thirty-five languages.

In addition, Sj�n has written more than seven poetry collections, several opera librettos, and lyrics for various artists, including Bj�rk. He was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics in Dancer in the Dark, and he cowrote the script of the film The Northman with its director, Robert Eggers. In 2017 he became the third writer - following Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell - to contribute to Future Library, a public artwork based in Norway spanning one hundred years.

He lives in Reykjav�k, Iceland.