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Paradise Reclaimed
  

Paradise Reclaimed (Hardcover)

by Halldor Laxness (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Description

IAn idealistic Icelandic farmer journeys to Mormon Utah and back in search of paradise in this captivating novel by Nobel Prize—winner Halldor Laxness.
The quixotic hero of this long-lost classic is Steinar of Hlidar, a generous but very poor man who lives peacefully on a tiny farm in nineteenth-century Iceland with his wife and two adoring young children. But when he impulsively offers his children's beloved pure-white pony to the visiting King of Denmark, he sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that leaves his family in ruins and himself at the other end of the earth, optimistically building a home for them among the devout polygamists in the Promised Land of Utah. By the time the broken family is reunited, Laxness has spun his trademark blend of compassion and comically brutal satire into a moving and spellbinding enchantment, composed equally of elements of fable and folkore and of the most humble truths. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


From the Back Cover

“Laxness has genuine magic as a novelist.”–New York Herald Tribune

"Full of an earthy poetry . . . a style wonderfully wise and entirely Scandinavian in its combination of magic and reality." --The New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Life Journey, April 11 2004
By Gail Moore "avid reader" (vancouver canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Paradise Reclaimed (Paperback)
A saga about Steinar Steinsson of Hlidar farm in Iceland, a simple man who lives with his simple wife and two simple children. Set in the later 1800's, the story begins with the family possessing a remarkable pony that is the envy of others, it attracts so much attention that Steinar decides to take the pony to a national celebration and present it to King Christian of Denmark. It is here that he encounters Bishop Didrik for the first time, an ex-Icelander who now makes his home in Salt Lake, the bishop is back in Iceland to convert souls to Mormonism. Later Steinar is invited to Denmark by King Christian, where he meets European royalty, drinks water from a special spring and after another encounter with the bishop is converted to Mormonism. He decides to travel to America abandoning his family and embracing his new faith, the Mormon community is at this point is still young and still polygamous. Eventually after some years he sends for his family in Iceland but by then nothing is the same, his farm is in ruins and his loved ones broken.

Funny and heartbreaking at the same time, this novel is as beautiful to read as a fairytale. Much also about life in Iceland at that time and the early history of Mormonism in Utah.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A touching tale, by a master novelist, April 21 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Paradise Reclaimed (Paperback)
Along with The Fish can Sing, this is one of Laxness's best "later" novels (i.e. from the post-epic phase, which resulted in masterpieces like Independent People and Iceland's Bell, now finally translated into English!). It is a touching story - based, as is so often the case with Laxness, on real persons and events - of an Icelandic farmer who is baptized by a Mormon and decides to move to the promised land, i.e. Salt Lake City. The story is beautiful and deeply touching in its descriptions of the many sacrifices which have to be made in order for this dream to be realized, and the ending is absolutely brilliant (and fully in keeping with Laxness's Taoist philosophy). A must-read!
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