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Bjarni Bjarnason

On
the Icelandic
Authors'
Web

Excerpts
from some
Icelandic
reviews
 
Foto by FRG - July 18th 2004

Bjarni Bjarnason

Born on Nov. 9 th 1965

On the litterary web 
An early
start

Bjarni Bjarnason began publishing poems in magazines while still in his teens and at the age of twenty wrote a play which was performed by an amateur dramatics society.
List

Andblær

Dreams

Sunset
at the Shore.
Got first prize
in the Icelandic
National
Broadcasting
Service´s
short story
competition.

Word-document:
The story
- in Icelandic

 
 

List of published Works

2008

Drauga-
höndin

 Published in December 2008

Draugahöndin (The Arm of the Ghost),

a story for children.

Drawings by Kjartan Hallur

Uppheimar, 2008.
ISBN 9789979659211 (ib.)
2007

Bernhard
Zero

 

 Published in December 2007 the novel  Bernharður Núll (Bernhard Zero).

The publisher's introduction:
Who is the everyday-spy Bernard Zero? Where at the restaurant does he place himself and spy on us? When will he enter our lives and participate - or walk out on us? One thing for sure: he has arrived Iceland and notes on everything he sees in the restaurant.
A clearcut expression, new points of view and originality are the marks of Bjarni Bjarnason and that is the stampmark on Bernard Zero. This a catching story of modern man with his existence scrupulously dissected with a merciless insight.

Kynning útgefanda í Bókatíðindum ársins 2007:
Hver er hversdagsnjósnarinn Bernharður Núll? Við hvaða borð á kaffihúsinu situr hann og njósnar um okkur? Hvenær mun hann stíga inn í líf okkar og taka þátt eða stígur hann út úr okkur sjálfum? Hann er alla vega kominn til Íslands og skráir allt niður sem hann sér á kaffihúsinu.
Beittur stíll, nýsköpun og frumleiki einkenna verk Bjarna Bjarnasonar og Bernharður Núll er þar engin undantekning. Sterk og áleitin samtímasaga þar sem tilvist nútímmannsins er vægðarlaust krufin til mergjar af miklu innsæi.
Útgefandi Uppheimar, ISBN númer 978-9979-9775-7-5, 230 bls. - Leiðbeinandi verð 4.280 kr.
2003

Faces

 In November 2003 the selfbiographical novel Andlit (Faces) is published. 

Here Bjarni Bjarnason tells of his youth in the seventies and how he is mostly self-raised. He is on a somehow constant move around, both inland and abroad, making acquaintance with odd people like the snake woman that once served a world famous actor, an American guru thriving on icelandic souls, Cleopatra who is interested in the lifestyles of the subterranian poets. He meets Swedish policemen that look suspiciously at dreams, stressed stewardesses and all kinds of ghosts. 

This is a story filled with humour, grief and warmth, but first and foremost a singular description of a singular life. 
2001

Mannætu-
konan
og
maður hennar

 The
Cannibal
Woman
and her
Husband.

 2001.

The Cannibal woman and her husband. (Novel, 2001.)

Got the Halldór Laxness Literary Prize.

Further information on the Vaka.Web

Dreams Bjarnason has written down his dreams for fifteen years. He has taken from his dream collection ninety dreams and made a book out of them. Some of the dreams are in English:

For example in march 1989 he woke up with the following description of his existens in mind:

"Your life is all set and done,
and here you sit under the sun."
1998

Borgin
bak við orðin

The
City behind
the Words

*  *  *

1999

Næturvörður
kyrrðarinnar

The
Guardian
of Silence

In 1998, Bjarnason got the Tómas Guðmundsson Literary Prize from the City of Reykjavík for his novel, Borgin bak við Orðin. (The City Behind the Words). The story is about a boy named Immanuel Mercurous, who at the age of seven, wakes up one morning in a big, modern city he does not know. When people ask him who he is, he says that he is a prince, and starts telling stories from the kingdom of his father. People find him strange, but they cannot help listening to his mysterious stories. Soon he is living by telling his stories out in the open. As he gets older the question if the stories are true ore pure fiction becomes more pressing. The later book about Immanuel Mercurous came in 1999 and is called Næturvörður Kyrrðarinnar (The Guardian of Silence).

Sigríður Albertsdóttir said in a review on Borgin bak við Orðin in DV daily in December 1998: Borgin bak við Orðin is a complicated work, full of symbols which are not always easy to understand except deep in the subconscious where the universal arctypes have their domain. But this is exactly the magic of the text. It sends the reader into another world, and is totally spellbinding in its divine beauty. The text is so poetic and full of wisdom that you want to learn it all by heart.

In the winter 2000 issue of the international magazine, WORLD LITERATURE TODAY, Kristen Wolf from the University of Manitoba, gave Borgin bak við orðin the following critique:

"Bjarni Bjarnason is no doubt one of the most remarkable Icelandic authors of his generation (...)

Borgin bak við orðin is a sophisticated and extraordinary piece of work (...)

Immanúel (the main character in the book) raises many important, profound, and relevant issues with his audience, the reader, and provides them with, if not truth, then fiction of almost divine inspiration. "
Games In 1999, Bjarnason got prize for three one-act plays called Games, and they were put up in Iðnó theatre in spring 2000.
1996

Endurkoma
MaríuI

The
Return
of the
Divine Mary

Excerpts
in Icelandic
from the book

 Bjarnason´s second novel, Endurkoma Maríu (The Return of the Divine Mary), appeared in 1996. After its nomination for the Icelandic Literary Prize the same year, the author was interviewed in all the main media in Iceland where he discussed the Virgin Mary and the book. In a review in DV daily on December 5, 1996, Sigríður Albertsdóttir wrote: The Virgin Mary in modern society. What would that woman be like and how would she be received? This is the question Bjarni Bjarnason poses in his novel The Return of the Divine Mary, and develops it into an original and interesting novel. (...)

I do not intend to spoil the experience for other readers by sharing my own reflections on the message and conclusions of this unique and exciting book. Readers should find that out for themselves. But I predict that very few people will be disappointed by reading it.

Excerpts in English from the book. 

ISBN 9979-63-007-8 / 9979630078

On the Visir Literary Web: Endurkoma Maríu.
Review by Einar Falur Ingólfsson, Mbl. 12.12.1996.

Uppheimar 2007 -
THE RETURN OF THE DIVINE MARY (Endurkoma Maríu)
Þýðandi David McDuff. The novel in English.  
ISBN 978-9979-9775-4-4

From the Reykjavik Grapewine - website:
The Return of the Divine Mary - Words by Tobias Munthe
Part romance, part thriller, part theological speculation, The Return of the Divine Mary is a wonderfully eccentric, enchanting read. Traces of William Blake mingle with undertones of Bulgakov, Eco and Kafka to create a fast-paced, unpredictable drama constructed on an intriguing premise: ‘What would the Virgin Mary be like as a young woman in modern society, and how would her contemporaries receive her?’
Read the article on Reykjavik Grapewine >>
1995

Sólarlag
við
sjávarrönd

 In 1995 his Sólarlag við sjávarrönd (Sunset at the Shore) won first prize in the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service´s short story competition and was broadcast twice on the radio, accompanied by piano music composed by the author himself.

Word-document: The story - in Icelandic
1994

Vísland

 Vísland, published in September 1994, is a collection of all Bjarnason´s earlier works, either as printed or slightly revised, together with five essays on the mind and consciousness. One theme of the essays is words and sentences produced during dreams, and the book also contains an illustration of a very peculiar device, an artist´s impression of a kind of representation of consciousness which Bjarnason dreamt. Jón Özur Snorrason remarked on the book in a review in Morgunblaðið on December 1, 1994: Vísland is divided into seven main sections, with a remarkable strictness of construction. The first section is named Upphafið (The Beginning) and begins with the word "behold" and the last one Endirinn (The End) and ends "the final point." Between Eden and Hell with man in the centre, presented in poems, short stories, dramatic works and essays. The structure recalls a dramatic piece of music with its framework "borrowed" from Genesis and Revelations (...)

Bjarni Bjarnason examines human life in a religious, historical, philosophical an scientific light. The undertone of his work is largely pessimistic and nihilistic, but always interspersed with humour. It is a Byronic poet who wield this pen, a "new man" in revolt against God and men:

Go out of me God
so that I may die
Go out of me man
so that I may live forever
go
go
go.

Bjarni Bjarnason is a powerful poet.
Andblær In 1994, Bjarnason founded a literary magazine called Andblær, a forum for many interesting young writers.
1993

Dagurinn í dag

Today

 In September 1993, Bjarnason published seven one-act plays, which may either be performed separately or in sequence to produce a full-length play. Reviewing the book, Dagurinn í dag (Today), for Tíminn daily on March 15, 1994, Haraldur Jóhannsson described how: two of the one-act plays, Hillingavatnið (Water of Mirages) and Nú er lygamælirinn fullur (Lie detector overload), intertwine human life with the cyber-existence of the future. They are clever, even brilliant.
1992

Sonur
skuggans

The
Son of the
Shadow

 In September 1992 Bjarnason published his first novel, Sonur skuggans (The son of the shadow). In Morgunblaðið on December 12, 1992, Jón Özur Snorrason remarked: This is very well done and the book is packed with interesting reflection. Weltschmerz prevails, mixed with humour. The main character´s freedom involves giving his thoughts endless scope. The author´s freedom must surely involve this too.
1990

Urðarfjóla

Bolder Violets

+

Í Óralandi

In
Far-Away Land

 In September 1990, Bjarnason published two books, a collection of love poetry titled Urðafjóla (Bolder Violet) and a collection of short stories under the title Í Óralandi (In Far-Away Land). In a Morgunblaðið review on November 15, 1990, poet Kjartan Árnason said: "The world is my mistress / and our children that which I write," says Bjarni Bjarnason in his poem Ástarsaga (Love Story) in his latest verse collection, Urðafjóla. I think that he describes his poetry better in these words than I could in a long article. Someone who loves the world has affection too for man with all his flaws, and at the same time respects life as it is. This is the way they reveal themselves to me, these children of Bjarnason and the world (...)

Í Óralandi is a collection of eleven short stories. Perhaps "short story" is not always the right term; one text, for example, is a letter by Bjarni Bjarnason to the males of the future. But regardless of literary classifications, Bjarnason follows a highly unusual course in this book. With one hand he holds onto the umbilical chord of the universe, with the other a Parker pen, as he jumps up and down on the Earth - sometimes with his feet on the ground, sometimes not. Bjarnason´s fiction seems to hover - but not all up in the air - nd is a kind of notion of fiction. And, nota Bene, this is not to be taken as a negative quality. In fact I have considerable difficulty in finding anything that correspond to this notional fiction, he does not exactly write himself into a tradition - at least not any prevailing tradition. And in my opinion this is good news.
1989

Upphafið

The Beginning

 In January 1989 Bjarnason published his first book of verse, Upphafið (The Beginning) which contains 36 poems including a metaphysical work of twenty stanzas. In a review in Iceland´s largest daily, Morgunblaðið, on May 18, 1989, the paper´s cultural editor Jóhann Hjálmarsson said: The long poem after which the book is named combines an eloquence and a playfulness which are highly promising.
Ótal kraftaverk

Untold Miracles

 In January 1989 Bjarnason published his second book, Ótal Kraftaverk (Untold Miracels). In a review in Morgunblaðið on December 5, 1989, writer Erlendur Jónsson described his writing as: powerful with many vigorous turns of phrase - it moves with a cold an stirring breeze.

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