Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir wins the Prix Médicis étranger 2019
Ólafsdóttir receives the esteemed Prize for the novel Ungfrú Ísland (Miss Iceland) translated by Eric Boury into French.
Award-winning writer Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir received the esteemed Prix Médicis étranger 2019 for her novel Ungfrú Ísland (Miss Iceland) translated by Eric Boury into French.
Her work has attracted praise for its fresh perspective and her dark, incisive humor. She received the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize for her previous novel Ör (Hotel Silence) in 2018. Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's books are published in 33 countries.
Miss Iceland
Set against the backdrop of conservative Iceland of the 1960's, Miss Iceland is a tender and poetic story of a young woman, striving for freedom, creativity and self-fulfillment.
The book is already sold in 9 countries: Israel (Lesa Books), Denmark (Batzer & Co), France (Zulma), Germany (Surhkamp/Insel), Italy (Einaudi), Norway (Pax Forlag), Sweden (Weyler Forlag), USA (Grove), & UK (Pushkin), originally published in Iceland (Benedikt Publishing).
Prix Médicis étranger was established in 1970 and among other authors who have received the prize are Milan Kundera, Julio Cortázar, Doris Lessing, Umberto Eco, Elsa Morante, Paul Auster & Philip Roth.