“Icelandic novelist Bragi Ólafsson’s English-language debut is part Beckettian or even Kafkaesque black comedy, part existentialist novel in the Paul Auster mode, and part locked-room mystery in which the murderee is alive and well and hiding in the bedroom.” That’s how Kirkus Reviews describes The Pets, a hilarious book in which the protagonist hides under his bed for the majority of the novel. Widely known as the bassist for The Sugarcubes (Bjork’s first band), Bragi has since become an inventive, popular, and award-winning novelist in his home country of Iceland. On October 7th, come to hear Bragi read from this “dark, strange, elusive, compelling, and oddly charming” book, and talk about Icelandic literature and culture with translator Lytton Smith.

Hawkins Carlson Room
Rush Rhees Library
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY