World Light
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World Light by Halldor Laxness
As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation- the belief that one day he will be a great poet. The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet's life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. World Light demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.
Halldor Laxness was born near Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1902. His first novel was published when he was seventeen. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, and one of the outstanding novelists of the century, he wrote more than sixty books, including novels, short stories, essays, poems, plays, and memoirs. In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Laxness died in Iceland in 1998.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780375727573 |
| ISBN 10 | 0375727574 |
| Title | World Light |
| Author | Halldor Laxness |
| Series | Vintage International |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 2002-10-08 |
| Number of pages | 624 |
| Prizes | Winner of Nobel Prize 1955 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |