Word: erlendur
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...jetted around Europe snapping up companies and finding ever new ways to get rich. Their world collapsed this fall, along with Iceland's economy. So it's fitting that another - and very different - Icelander is stepping in to take their place on the world stage. His name is Erlendur Sveinsson, and he's a gloomy, introverted and thoroughly unhappy man who dislikes the way Iceland has been modernizing. His family life is a mess, with a divorced wife who refuses to talk to him, a drug-addict daughter and a moody son. And his idea of a good evening...
...Erlendur is, in fact, fictional. He's a sullen detective created by Arnaldur Indridason, 47, a former film critic who started writing crime novels a decade ago. Indridason has attracted a huge following in Iceland and increasingly abroad, ever since the German version of Jar City came out in 2003. He's now translated into 36 languages, and has sold more than five million books worldwide. Indridason is currently working on his 10th Erlendur novel. The most recent, Arctic Chill, was published in September. An Icelandic movie of Jar City came out in 2006 and a Hollywood producer has already...
Indridason writes tersely, his descriptions as hard and sparse as the Icelandic countryside. In person, he has a low-key manner, a receding hairline and an engaging smile. Erlendur, he says, is "part of the history of Iceland in the late 20th century when it changed from being a very poor peasant society to a very rich one." The detective is popular, he reckons, because "he's very flawed but very human. People identify with Erlendur maybe because of loneliness and failure. He's a horrible family man, but a perfect policeman...
...fictional Erlendur's success has spawned a wave of young crime novelists in Iceland. Until Indridason, Icelandic literature consisted primarily of medieval sagas and the somber novels of Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness. Indridason has overcome the skepticism of local critics by taking pains to remain credible to his compatriots: "There are no car chases or explosions. It has to be small scale. You couldn't have five or six murders...
...Erlendur isn't a self-portrait, but Indridason shares some of his detective's disdain for the way Iceland has changed. "It happened so fast, we haven't grasped it yet. Two to three generations ago we had nothing at all, and then all of a sudden we had everything," he says. Now, with the economic crisis, "I think people will stop this endless craving for more, for cars, money and houses, and hopefully will go back to basics." If that means quiet evenings at home reading about Erlendur's latest exploits...