Yrsa among the best
“It stands comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world,” says the TLS of Yrsa Sigurðardóttir's Ashes to Dust.
In a recent review of Yrsa Sigurðdardóttir's Ashes to Dust, The Times Literary Supplement claims that the book stands “comparison with the finest contemporary crime writing anywhere in the world.”
An English translation of the book came out last summer, and Sigurðardóttir has since repeatedly featured in English-speaking media. She has been well received by critics, and was called “Iceland's answer to Stieg Larsson” by the Daily Telegraph.
The review in the Times Literary Supplement begins: “Ashes to Dust is the third of Yrsa Sigurdardottir's Icelandic crime novels to be translated into English, and although its predecessors, Last Rituals and My Soul to Take, were good, this is by far the best." The review goes on to praise Sigurðardóttir's characters, singling out the novel's sleuth – lawyer and single mother Þóra Guðmundsdóttir – as an “engaging creation.”
“It's very gratifying to see this review of Yrsa in the Times Literary Supplement,” says her publisher in Iceland, Pétur Már Ólafsson. “Her presence abroad has been increasing steadily, and she has often been compared to major, bestselling writers. And when the supreme court of literature – the TLS – declares that her book stands alongside the finest in crime writing, one is dumbstruck.”
Sigurðardóttir attended the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, where she participated in a debate on Icelandic crime novels. She did not return empty-handed home, as the German publishing house Fischer bought the rights to her her upcoming novel, Ég man þig (lit. I Remember You). Fischer has already bought the rights to all of Sigurðardóttir's previous crime novels, and will also publish her award-winning children's book Biobörn (lit. Biokids) in the coming year, when Iceland will appear as the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In addition, Yrsa's Icelandic publisher, Veröld, signed a deal with the American publishing house MacMillan to publish Ashes to Dust in North America.