The Króna Winter

About this book

October 2008. When Iceland's banks collapse in a single week, eighteen-year-old Benni Eggertsson loses his glass house in Garðabær, his school, and very nearly his father. His mother drives him north-west to Kaldeyri, a Westfjords fishing village of four hundred people where men like his father are called business vikings and spat at. His uncle finds him a job on the night line at the fish plant. There he meets Dagný Hjartardóttir, who has gutted fish since she was fourteen, is saving every króna to get out, and has decided to hate him. But the village's trawler and quota belong to a company that fell with the banks, and if they are sold south, Kaldeyri dies. Told by two voices across one hard winter, from the crash to the pots-and-pans protests to the spring election: what do you owe a place you never chose?