Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation is a book written by the Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason

Andri Snær Magnason

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer. He has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and CD's. His work has been published or performed in more than 16 countries...

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It became the number one best-selling book in Iceland in 2006, and received the Winner of the Icelandic Literary Award, and Winner of the Icelandic Bookseller Prize the same year Andri Snær Magnason. The English edition of the book has a foreword by the Icelandic artist Björk

Björk

Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...

. The Icelandic version's title is Draumalandið - sjálfshjálparbók handa hræddri þjóð (Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation).

Content

Dreamland is Andri Snaer Magnason's critique against the current decision taken by the Icelandic government to build out Iceland's rivers in order to produce energy that can be delivered to aluminium factories. Magnason describes how Iceland's government actively have pursued the idea to attract foreign aluminium companies to Iceland with the promise of the "cheapest energy in the world". The government advertisement described Iceland's energy potential as 30 TWh/year. Magnason argues in the book that in order to accomplish this, the majority of Iceland's rivers would need to be exploited, with the consequence that some of Iceland's most known waterfalls such as Dettifoss which is Europe's most powerful waterfall, and Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss is a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland.Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. The wide Hvítá rushes southward...

 which together with Thingvellir and Geyser

Geyser

A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapour phase . The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb...

 makes up the golden circle.

It is set up as a series of thoughts on issues in modern Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 and the past Iceland and deals heavily with the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project

Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project

Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant is a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Iceland designed to produce 4,600 GWh annually for Alcoa's Fjardaál aluminum smelter to the east in Reyðarfjörður. The project, named after nearby Mount Kárahnjúkur, involves damming the Jökulsá á Dal River and the Jökulsá...

 and other similar works being done. It was the best sold book in Iceland in 2006 and raised Icelanders' interest in environmentalism

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 by a large amount. In the book the Icelandic nation is encouraged to look to more "futuristic" types of business than aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

processing and to stop believing that they can't do anything for themselves.