32 Novels set in Iceland

Absolution is a novel by Olaf Olafsson about the mind of a man haunted by the crime he planned half a century earlier.

The Arctic Patrol Mystery is Volume 48 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.

Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex, known in America as Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, is the seventh book in the Artemis Fowl series. It was published on 20 July 2010 in the United Kingdom and on 3 August 2010 in North America. It was followed by Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian, which was confirmed to be the final book in the Artemis Fowl series.

The Atom Station is a novel by Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. The initial print run sold out on the day it was published, for the first time in Icelandic history.

Bankster: Skáldsaga was the first novel by Guðmundur Óskarsson and the 2009 winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize for fiction.

The Bondman is an 1890 best-selling novel by Hall Caine set in the Isle of Man and Iceland. It was the first novel to be released by the newly established Heinemann publishing company. It was a phenomenal success and was later adapted into a successful play and two silent films.

Burial Rites (2013) is a novel by Australian author Hannah Kent, based on a true story.

The Draining Lake is a 2004 crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, an entry in the Detective Erlendur series.

The Saga of Eric Brighteyes is an epic viking novel by H. Rider Haggard that concerns the adventures of its eponymous principal character in 10th-century Iceland. The novel was first published in 1890 by Longmans, Green & Company. It was illustrated by Lancelot Speed.

The Fated Sky is the title of a historical novel for young adults by English author Henrietta Branford, first published in Great Britain in 1996 by Hodder Children's Books. Set in Norway and Iceland during the Viking period, it depicts the stirring but bleak existence of Dark Age Europeans at a time of insecurity and constant threat from raiders. The story follows a young woman called Ran from the time she loses her mother in a wolf attack, and a subsequent attempt to kill her as a human sacrifice, to her escape with a blind harper, Toki, to a new life in Iceland. Even there however the threat of sudden violence hangs over small and isolated farming communities. The book does not dwell on bloodshed but is honest about the hardship, unpredictability and cruelty of the period, showing even sympathetic central characters as not immune to painful death. Moral choices are also at times difficult.

The Fish Can Sing is a 1957 novel by Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

From the Mouth of the Whale is a 2008 novel by the Icelandic writer Sjón. The English translation was shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. and the 2013 International Dublin Literary Award.

Gæska: Skáldsaga is the third novel by the Icelandic author Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, written in Helsinki and Ísafjörður between 2007 and 2009.

Gunnar's Daughter (1909) is a short novel written by Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset (1882-1949). This was Undset's first historical novel, set at the beginning of the 11th century in Norway and Iceland.

Hundadagar ('Dog-Days') is a 2015 novel by Einar Már Guðmundsson, published in Reykjavík by Mál og menning. It won the 2015 Íslensku bókmenntaverðlaunin in the literature category. It is set between the 1720s and the 1820s and prominently features the English collector of Icelandic manuscripts Joseph Banks.

Iceland's Bell is a historical novel by Nobel prize-winning Icelandic author Halldór Kiljan Laxness. It was published in three parts: Iceland's Bell (1943), The Bright Jewel or The Fair Maiden (1944) and Fire in Copenhagen (1946). The novel takes place in the 18th century, mostly in Iceland and Denmark. Like many of Laxness's works, the story paints a tragic and ironic picture of the terrible state of the Icelandic populace in the 18th century.

Icelander is the debut novel of Dustin Long. It is part of the Rectangulars line of McSweeney's Books. It appeared on the Los Angeles Times best-seller's list.

Independent People is an epic novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935; literally the title means "Self-standing [i.e. self-reliant] folk". It deals with the struggle of poor Icelandic farmers in the early 20th century, only freed from debt bondage in the last generation, and surviving on isolated crofts in an inhospitable landscape.

Íslenskir kóngar is a 2012 novel by Einar Már Guðmundsson, published by Mál og Menning, in Reykjavík.

Jar City, also known as Tainted Blood, is a crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, first published in Iceland in 2000. It was the first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English. In the UK, the title was changed to Tainted Blood when the paperback edition was released.

Journey to the Center of the Earth, also translated with the variant titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey into the Interior of the Earth), is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, Stromboli, in southern Italy.

Leyndardómar Reykjavíkur 2000 is a crime novel which was written by multiple Icelandic authors, each author writing one chapter. The novel received negative reviews.

Mannorð is a novel by Bjarni Bjarnason, published by Uppheimar in 2011. The novel was published in English translation in 2017 as The Reputation.

Örvitinn eða; hugsjónamaðurinn is a novel by Óttar M. Norðfjörð, published by Nýhil in 2010. It is illustrated by Inga Birgisdóttir. It has been characterised as 'a meditation on the first decade of the 21st century in novella form, a bildungsroman with close ties to Voltaire's Candide’.

Píslarvottar án hæfileika: Saga af hnattvæddri kynslóð is the first novel by Kári Tulinius, published in 2010 by JPV.

Red Storm Rising is a war novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Larry Bond, and released on August 7, 1986. Set in the mid-1980s, it features a Third World War between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact forces, and is unique for depicting the conflict as being fought exclusively with conventional weapons, rather than escalating to the use of weapons of mass destruction or nuclear warfare. It is one of two Clancy novels, including SSN (1996), that are not set in the Ryanverse.

Running Blind is a first person narrative espionage thriller novel by English author Desmond Bagley, first published in 1970 with a cover by Norman Weaver.

Samhengi hlutanna is an Icelandic novel by Sigrún Davíðsdóttir. It is a thriller set in the aftermath of the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis, focusing on the efforts of the protagonist, Arnar Finnsson, to complete the last book and, eventually, solve the murder of his dead partner Hulda.

Sigurðar saga fóts: Íslensk riddarasaga is the fourth book by the Icelandic writer, politician, and bookseller Bjarni Harðarson. It takes its name from the medieval Icelandic romance saga Sigurðar saga fóts and has been seen as an example of medievalism in Icelandic literature arising from the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis. It was published in 2010.

Somnium is a novel written in 1608, in Latin, by Johannes Kepler. The narrative would not be published until 1634 by Kepler's son, Ludwig Kepler. In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania from a daemon. Somnium presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the first works of science fiction.

State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Despite being a work of fiction, the book contains many graphs and footnotes, two appendices, and a 20-page bibliography in support of Crichton's beliefs about global warming. Many climate scientists, science journalists, environmental groups, and science advocacy organisations dispute Crichton's views on the science as being error-filled and distorted.

Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír is the third novel by Halldór Kiljan Laxness, published in 1927 by the Reykjavík publisher Forlagið. The theme of the work is a young man's soul and search for truth, faith and love, and his choice between love and faith. It is particularly noted as the seminal modernist novel in Icelandic.