Thórarinn Leifsson
Thórarinn Leifsson (b. 1966) is an Icelandic author and illustrator, born in 1966. He graduated from the Icelandic Academy of Arts in Reykjavik in 1989 and worked as an illustrator and web designer for several years before making his literary debut with Father’s Big Secret in 2007 – a dark tale for children about a cannibal father and his complicated relationship with his children.
In 2009 Leifsson wrote Grandmother’s Library for children and young adults, a work inspired by the bank collapse and what the author felt was the empty materialism of Icelandic society in the years leading up to the crisis. The book was awarded the Reykjavik Children Books Prize in 2010 and nominated for the Nordic Children’s Book Prize in 2011.
In 2001 Leifsson wrote an autobiographical novel called Street Painter, based on his experiences as a vagabond in southern Spain and Morocco in the late eighties. The Man Who Hated Children is Leifsson’s latest novel for children and young adults, published in the autumn of 2014. In the sense of style the book continues were Grandmother’s Library left off. The Man Who Hated Children was nominated for The Icelandic Literary Prize, the foremost prize of the northern nation. Leifsson’s first stageplay, The Foreign Kid, premiered in the same period.His latest novel for adults, Kaldakol(to be published in November 2017) focuses on a fictional scenario, though upon closer scrutiny it corresponds with the present day in many respects.
The rights to Leifsson’s books are managed by Forlagid and have so far been sold to Germany, Denmark, Norway, Faroe Islands, Finland, Estonia, Italy, Brasil, Hungary and Turkey.
Orkana har gitt ut to av titlene i norsk oversettelse, under tittelen Bestemor Hulds bibliotek, oversatt av Tone Myklebost i 2012 og Leyndarmálid hans pabba under tittelen Pappas hemmelighet, oversatt av Tiril Myklebost, i 2013.
Foto: Orkana
