Reviews

• “Tool by Kristín Eiríksdóttir is an elegantly intertwined narrative that delves deeply into its analyses of unfolding lives. At the same time, the novel challenges conventional ideas about political correctness, fiction, and freedom of speech.”

• “A profound and intricate work of fiction in its dialogue with conscience and compassion.”

• “[Tool] is a gripping story, at times shocking, which affects every single node of the emotional spectrum.”

• “A remarkable story that carries a lot of meaning. /…/ Very believable, convincing, and effective.”

• “We already knew that Icelandic writer Kristín Eiríksdóttir was extremely talented. [Tool] cements her place at the front of the pack of contemporary European literature. /…/ In [Tool], besides the pure literary component there are also elements of critical intelligence, with [Eiríksdóttir] being equally comfortable in blending topical intellectual and moral debates as with portraying the challenges of existence. /…/ The introduction, where Kristín Eiríksdóttir transforms the post-screening debate of Villa’s film into a narrative structure as flexible as it is firm, [is brilliant].”

• “A novel that’s like a black sun, fascinating with its dark and subtle glow. Painful, too. It forces its readers to regularly catch their breath before calling them back, mistreating them again and despite everything then offering them, in the final pages, the possibility of a brighter light.”

• “It is a matter of celebration that we have an artist of this caliber who writes fiction with the gravitas that is displayed here. Tool is a remarkable and important novel that has an urgent message for our time. /…/ Kristín Eiríksdóttir is one of our greatest authors that delivers wonderfully true and original work.”

• “Tool is a complex, ambitious, and exceptionally well-structured novel that I look forward to continue discussing with the people around me.”

• “With time, [Eiríksdóttir] has evolved into a meticulous and captivating fiction author with many clever schemes on hand. /…/ Kristín possesses the gift of including many of life’s necessities and dimensions on the printed page: explicit, implied, and even indescribable. In particular, she has a sense of inner life, expressed through bodily sensations. Her characters exist in a hard-to-grasp and often warped world. An idle gastroscopy can become nail-bitingly thrilling. Both the timeline and the style in Tool have an intricate structure, depicted in short chapters. But [Eiríksdóttir] is fully aware of where the reader is and in exactly the right moment she makes sure to provide new information. /…/ [Kristín has] a clever and effective narrative technique, which captures both previous and current mental and bodily suffering, largely thanks to a simple and exact style, ceaselessly anchored in the narrator’s current situation as well as in the retelling. Kristín is not the only Icelandic author to master this sort of multilayered narrative, which holds both a modern consciousness about the mechanics of the soul as well as connecting to a tradition of anecdotal storytelling. But Tool is unique thanks to a deep knowledge of addiction treatment, both from the eyes of the employees and the addicts.”

• “Following A Fist Or a Heart, a highly enigmatic, award-winning novel (…) Icelandic author Kristín Eiríksdóttir returns with a literary work of the same caliber. /…/ This is a captivating novel that reflects different facets of reality like a prism.”