The true heart of the book belongs not to its eponymous heroine but the strong-willed women of Iceland generally. Life here is hard, death swift and ubiquitous. Through every loss and setback, the brutal winters, the months the men spend at sea with the fishing fleet, the women endure…A convincing portrayal of the lives of Icelandic women during an important period in the country’s history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Karitas Untitled is a newly translated Icelandic novel peopled with unique, quirky, and well-defined characters. With the talent of a true artist, the author paints stunning descriptions…this is a rich novel that readers who enjoy international literature will appreciate.” —Historical Novels Review
“Karitas Untitled is a sweeping tale as majestic and often as bleak and brutal as the Icelandic landscape and the seas that wash its shores. What really shines through is the faith Karitas and the women around her have in themselves and each other. Baldursdóttir has made a wonderful contribution to bringing Nordic literature to a wider audience.” —Authorlink
“Although set in the twentieth century, Karitas’s story speaks to the trials of a modern woman as well—how to balance childcare and art, how to care for a home while your husband is absent, how to love a man who is bad for you but who says all the right things. No matter what time we live in, love and relationships and our calling in life are difficult, and her story reflects that of all women, past and present, Icelandic and beyond. It also reflects the female experience of bonding with other women in times of trouble to make it all work out, even if it means taking the long way around.” —San Francisco Book Review
“Kristín Marja’s novel isn’t just a well-written story about the life of a female artist in the last century—it relates to today. Karitas Untitled is the story of a woman trapped in a tangible tug-of-war. And it’s powerfully told.” —Melkorka Óskarsdóttir, Fréttablaðið newspaper, Iceland
“Karitas’s story is graced with precisely all the qualities you would expect to find in a great, award-winning book.” —Kristianstadsbladet newspaper, Sweden
“A wonderful story that, like any great novel, grabs you for the duration of the story and then follows you long after the book, sadly, is over.” —Kathrine Lilleør, Berlingske newspaper, Denmark
“Let it be said at once: Baldursdóttir’s novel about the fate of women at the beginning of the twentieth century is magnificent. One laps up the story as if it were the milk that is fundamental for survival in remote Iceland…Like the fat Icelandic herring that are salted into barrels, so the history of Icelandic women is set in layers—remembered, retold, sketched, and written by a dedicated descendant.” —Tine Maria Winther, Politiken newspaper, Denmark
“Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir’s novel Karitas Untitled is not just the poignant story of a young woman but also a portrait of that transitional period in Icelandic history that led to modernization.” —Fríða Björk Ingvarsdóttir, Morgunblaðið newspaper, Iceland
“A Brontë-ish saga about one family’s struggle against poverty, nature, and conventions.” —Lilja Sigurðardóttir, author of the award-winning Reykjavik Noir Trilogy
2022-02-05
Award-winning Icelandic novelist Baldursdóttir's story of a woman's struggle to become an artist in the early decades of the 20th century.
When the widow of a fisherman lost at sea moves her six children from rural western Iceland to the city of Akureyri, it's in order to educate not just her sons, but her daughters as well. It's 1915, and Icelandic women have just been granted suffrage: "This new era will bring women brighter days. We can get educations, and we can vote." After a harrowing boat journey, Karitas, the artistic youngest daughter, is put in charge of her little brother and the household chores while the others go out to work. Told mostly in third person, with short sections from Karitas' point of view, the novel depicts their time in a saltfish warehouse and their longing for dry feet and leather shoes during a winter so cold the urine freezes in the chamber pot. A rich neighbor arranges for Karitas to study art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Returning after five years, she tries hard to create a life as an artist even after getting pregnant and moving to a turf-and-stone farmhouse with her fisherman husband. She fights with her highhanded spouse, hides from elf women, makes art when she can, despairs: "Was she focused on art, after all—or were there artists who thought of clotheslines?" But the true heart of the book belongs not to its eponymous heroine but the strong-willed women of Iceland generally. Life here is hard, death swift and ubiquitous. Through every loss and setback, the brutal winters, the months the men spend at sea with the fishing fleet, the women endure. As Karitas' mother says: "We fight, we Icelanders, we fight.”
A convincing portrayal of the lives of Icelandic women during an important period in the country's history.
