Arnaldur Indriðason
Encyclopedia
Arnaldur Indriðason is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction. He has repeatedly proved to be the most popular writer in Iceland in recent years — topping bestseller lists year after year. In the year 2004 his books were seven of the ten most popular titles borrowed in Reykjavík City Library.
, the son of the writer Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Iceland
(Háskóli Íslands) in 1996. He worked as a journalist for the newspaper Morgunblaðið
in 1981-1982, and later freelanced. From 1986 to 2001, he was a film critic for Morgunblaðið.
He published his first book, Sons of Dust (Synir duftsins) in 1997, the first in the series of Detective Erlendur. The series includes eleven novels as of 2010.
Arnaldur's books have been published in twenty-six countries and have been translated into Russian
, Polish
, German
, Greek
, Danish
, Catalan
, English
, Italian
, Czech
, Swedish
, Norwegian
, Dutch
, Finnish
, Spanish
, Portuguese
, Hungarian
, Chinese
, Croatian
, Romanian
and French
. Arnaldur received the Glass Key award
, a literature prize for the best Nordic crime novel, in 2002 and 2003. He won the Crime Writers' Association
Gold Dagger
Award in 2005 for the novel Silence of the Grave.
He lives in Reykjavík with his wife and three children.
Biography
Arnaldur was born in ReykjavíkReykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
, the son of the writer Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
Indriði Guðmundur Þorsteinsson was an Icelandic writer.-Life:Indriði was born on a farm in Skagafjörður, the son of a labourer. He studied at Héraðsskólinn á Laugarvatni from 1942-3. He worked as a driver in Akureyri from 1945-51, when he became a reporter at Tíminn...
. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Iceland
University of Iceland
The University of Iceland is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern comprehensive university, providing instruction for about...
(Háskóli Íslands) in 1996. He worked as a journalist for the newspaper Morgunblaðið
Morgunblaðið
Morgunblaðið is a newspaper published in Iceland, founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen & Olaf Björnsson, brother to the first president. The first issue, only eight pages long, was published on 2 November 1913. Six years later, in 1919, the corporation Árvakur bought out the company...
in 1981-1982, and later freelanced. From 1986 to 2001, he was a film critic for Morgunblaðið.
He published his first book, Sons of Dust (Synir duftsins) in 1997, the first in the series of Detective Erlendur. The series includes eleven novels as of 2010.
Arnaldur's books have been published in twenty-six countries and have been translated into Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. Arnaldur received the Glass Key award
Glass key award
The Glass Key award is a literature award given annually to a crime novel by an author from the Nordic countries.The award, named after the novel The Glass Key by American crime writer Dashiell Hammett, is a real glass key given every year by the members of the Crime Writers of Scandinavia to a...
, a literature prize for the best Nordic crime novel, in 2002 and 2003. He won the Crime Writers' Association
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
Gold Dagger
Gold Dagger
The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
Award in 2005 for the novel Silence of the Grave.
He lives in Reykjavík with his wife and three children.
Detective Erlendur series
- Synir duftsins (Sons of Dust, 1997)
- Dauðarósir (Silent Kill, 1998)
- Mýrin (Tainted BloodTainted BloodTainted Blood is a crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, originally published in Iceland in 2000...
, also known as Jar City, 2000) - Grafarþögn (Silence of the GraveSilence of the GraveSilence of the Grave is a crime novel by Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indriðason. Set in Reykjavík, the novel forms part of the author's regionally popular Murder Mystery Series, which star Detective Erlendur...
, 2001) - Röddin (Voices, 2003)
- Kleifarvatn (The Draining LakeThe Draining LakeThe Draining Lake is a 2004 crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, another entry in the multi award-winning Detective Erlendur series....
, 2004) - Vetrarborgin (Arctic ChillArctic ChillArctic Chill is a 2008 translation of a 2005 crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, another entry in the multi award-winning Detective Erlendur series....
, 2005) - Harðskafi (Hypothermia, 2007)
- Myrká (Outrage, 2008)
- Svörtuloft (2009)
- Furðustrandir (2010)
Other novels
- Napóleonsskjölin (Operation Napoleon, 1999)
- Bettý (2003)
- Konungsbók (The King's Book, 2006)
Other writings
- Leyndardómar Reykjavíkur 2000Leyndardómar Reykjavíkur 2000Leyndardómar Reykjavíkur 2000 is a crime novel which was written by members of the Crime Writers of Iceland. Each author wrote one chapter.The authors are:*Arnaldur Indriðason*Árni Þórarinsson*Birgitta Halldórsdóttir...
(one chapter; 2000) - Reykjavík-RotterdamReykjavík-RotterdamReykjavík-Rotterdam is an Icelandic film directed by Óskar Jónasson and starring Baltasar Kormákur.-Plot synopsis:Like a fish on a dry land, Kristofer is stuck in a dull everyday routine, working as a security guard. He got fired from the freight ship he worked on, when he was caught smuggling...
(screenplay co-writer, 2008)