Independent People is supposed to be his best, and perhaps his most communist, but I started it right after reading Hamsun’s The Growth of the Soil and wasn’t as in the mood for novels about farming / homesteading as I thought I was. All I really remember is that sheep carcasses were involved somehow, so I must not have stayed with it for long. Then I lent the book to a friend who was traveling to Iceland and I guess she never gave it back.

The other one I started was World Light, which had a lot going for it. It was so bleak it was laugh-out-loud funny. The line I remember most goes something like “No one has known true sadness until they hear the sound of an old man bawling.” This one I abandoned because it was March 2020 and I got lost in the panic. When I came back to the book too much time had passed. I’ll start over next time I pick it up.

I’ve also heard good things about Wayward Heroes but haven’t read it myself. Archipelago Books usually publishes good shit, though.