Independent People

| 4.19 | 9,303 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Alison Wolf, and 1 others. See all reviews

Ranked #2 in Iceland, Ranked #33 in Nobel

This magnificent novel—which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature—is at last available to contemporary American readers. Although it is set in the early twentieth century, it recalls both Iceland's medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.

Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more... more
Buy on Amazon

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Independent People from the world's leading experts.

Alison Wolf Here are five books with something to say, not just about education but about people – all five make us realise how different our societies are from how they were. Independent People is the book that has just bowled me over in the last couple of years, more than anything else I’ve read. It is incredibly moving, about a poor Icelandic farmer who does not want to be dependent on anyone for anything. And that is his overriding value – a very classic value of small, self-supporting peasant farmers. They have this integrity and courage as well as this drive to independence. It is set in Iceland at... (Source)

Similar Books

If you like Independent People, check out these similar top-rated books:

Learn: What makes Shortform summaries the best in the world?

Learn More