Osmann, Ferryman of the North
Joachim B. Schmidt
In Osmann, Ferryman of the North, Joachim B. Schmidt delivers his most accomplished novel to date: a luminous work of historical fiction inspired by the true life of Jón Magnússon Ósmann (1862–1914), a legendary ferryman from northern Iceland. In lyrical, myth-infused prose, Schmidt portrays love, loss and resilience on a remote fjord in the north of the country. Translated by Jamie Lee Searle.
Ósmann blends history, myth and human vulnerability to evoke a vanished way of life at the edge of the Arctic. Beautiful, moving and quietly powerful, it confirms Schmidt — already well known to English-language readers for Kalmann and Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain — as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary European fiction.
