Red Milk

SELECT PRAISE FOR CoDex 1962:

‘This is a work of great ambition … above all it feels like a work of virtuoso narrative for its own sake; an Icelandic 1001 Nights’ - The Sunday Times

Sjon writes with a poet’s ear and a musician’s natural sense of rhythm … has mastered (Gunter Grass)’s technique of merging history with high-speed comedy and surreal profundity … an heir of Mikhail Bulgakov and Laurence Sterne, eases literary references into the text as mere suggestions … His wild, subversive imagination is among his great strengths - Guardian

Bewitching … His stories compound the dreamscapes of Surrealism, the marvels of Icelandic folklore and a pop-culture sensibility into free-form fables. Call it magic realism under Nordic lights - The Economist

[CoDex 1962] consumed me for the better part of a week. I can only echo Loewe, with gratitude, exasperation and awe. “This book’s a bloody thief of time.” - New York Times

This book is psychedelic, it’s potent and it wants to consume the whole world … Sjon is a prodigal storyteller in all senses of the phrase … he is a master of atmosphere, a fine observer of the cross-hatchings of human motivation and a vivid noticer of detail. - New York Times Book Review

Sjon’s novels are brilliant collisions of history and fable, psychology and fantasy - Guardian

Born in Reykjavik in 1962, Sjon is the author of the novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone and CoDex 1962, for which he has won several awards including the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and his work has been translated into thirty-five languages.

In addition, Sjon has written nine poetry collections as well as four opera librettos and lyrics for various artists. He lives in Reykjavik, Iceland.