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"Sublime . . . A work of coy humor and shape-shifting magic ." ―The Wall Street Journal
Sjón's novels have been championed by a veritable pantheon of literary luminaries: Junot Díaz, David Mitchell, A. S. Byatt, Hari Kunzru, and Alberto Manguel, who calls The Whispering Muse "an extraordinary, powerful fable―a marvel." The Whispering Muse is Sjón's masterpiece so far.
The year is 1949 and Valdimar Haraldsson, an eccentric Icelander with elevated ideas about the influence of fish consumption on Nordic civilization, has had the extraordinary good fortune to be invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its way to the Black Sea. Among the crew is the mythical hero Caeneus, disguised as the second mate. Every evening after dinner he entrances his fellow travelers with the tale of how he sailed with the fabled vessel the Argo on the Argonauts' quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
What unfolds is a slender, brilliant, always entertaining novel that evokes Borges and Calvino as it weaves together tales of myth and antiquity with the modern world in a literary voice so singular as to seem possessed.
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Review:
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2013: Fish, myth, and pith form the foundation of this quick, quirky tale from celebrated Icelandic author Sjón. It's 1949 and a merchant ship embarks upon its maiden voyage. At the captain's dinner table, competing tale-tellers vie for the attention of their fellow travelers. The first is our tedious narrator, a retired journal editor who takes great pride in his theories and lectures on the connections between a fish-based diet and Nordic strength. But his oratorical skills (not to mention his subject of choice) pale in comparison to those of the ship's first mate, who in mysterious first-person detail shares the enthralling exploits of Jason and the Argonauts. Sjón artfully weaves the two together to comprise his own compellingly spun story; one that is over far too soon. ----Robin A. Rothman
About the Author:
Sjón was born in Reykjavik in 1962. He is an award-winning novelist, poet, and playwright, and his novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. He is the president of the Icelandic PEN Centre and the chairman of the board of Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature. Also a lyricist, he has written songs for Björk, including for her most recent project, Biophilia, and was nominated for an Oscar for the lyrics he cowrote (with Lars von Trier) for Dancer in the Dark. He lives in Reykjavik.
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- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 0374534764
- ISBN 13 9780374534769
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages160
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