Sögur handa öllum

by Svava Jakobsdóttir

Fáir íslenskir höfundar hafa náð jafn góðum tökum á knöppu listformi smásögunnar og Svava Jakobsdóttir. Sögur hennar gefa öfluga sýn á íslenskan veruleika og furðuleika og um leið á margbrotna reynslu og flókið samband einstaklings og samfélags. Þær draga fram varnarleysi og einsemd manneskjunnar og eru uppfullar af lífsháska en líka sérstæðri fegurð.

Hér eru saman komin þrjú smásagnasöfn Svövu, Veizla undir grjótvegg (1967), Gefið hvort öðru … (1982) og Undir eldfjalli (1989), með alls 25 sögum sem vöktu sterk viðbrögð á sínum tíma og gera enn.

Svava Jakobsdóttir var einn þekktasti og áhrifamesti rithöfundur okkar á síðari hluta 20. aldar og brautryðjandi í íslenskum nútímaskálskap. Auk smásagnanna skrifaði hún tvær skáldsögur og nokkur leikrit og lét til sín taka á sviði menningar- og stjórnmála. Verk hennar hafa verið þýdd á mörg tungumál og hún hlaut fyrir þau ýmsar viðurkenningar, hérlendis og erlendis.

Höfundur: Svava Jakobsdóttir

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Svava Jakobsdóttir was one of the foremost Icelandic authors of the twentieth century. She was also a leading figure in the campaign for women's rights and wielded a great deal of influence in her own time, through her stories, plays and academic works.
She turned over a new page in the art of Icelandic literature and few would dispute the level of innovation that she brought to both subject matter and narrative style. She was a leading light and a breaker of tradition both in the field of literature and, later in life, literary criticism.
Svava was awarded her BA in English and American Literature from Smith College in Massachusetts in 1952. She studied Old Icelandic Literature at Somerville College, Oxford for a year and, later, also spent a year studying Modern Swedish Literature at the University of Uppsala.
Aside from her literary career, she worked at the foreign embassy in Stockholm from 1955 to 1960, taught in Icelandic schools, worked as a journalist and in television. Svava was a þingmaður (an Icelandic Member of Parliament) from 1971 to 1979.
From 1968 to 1971 she was president of the Writers' Society of Iceland, and sat on various boards and panels throughout her life, including the Nordic Council from 1971 to 1974.
Her first book was the collection of short stories Tólf konur (Twelve Women), which came out in 1965. Her literary career encompassed short stories, novels and plays, as well as essays, articles and scripts for radio.
She died in 2004, survived by her husband Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson and their son Jakob.

Reviews

[Nína Guðrún · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frábærar allar 25.

[Sara Hlín · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ég er algjörlega hugfangin af smásögunum hennar Svövu. Skil ekki hvernig hún hefur farið framhjá mér í öll þessi ár. Hárbeittar, flestar furðulegar, og gagnrýna tíma sem vonandi má segja að séu liðnir. Merkilegt hvað hún nær flottri sýn á hlutina.

[Hrafnkell Úlfur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok greinilega ekki alveg öllum.