GatesyRead

  Saga Land  sat on my bookshelf for a few years in a loose queue, and then  I read it all at once, effortlessly and with pleasure. Richard Fidler has teamed up with Icelandic-Australian Kári Gíslason to co-write a narrative that moves between personal story (Gíslason’s search for family and connection to Iceland), mythology (sagas retold with a light touch) and travelogue (shared journeys together across the island).  The chapters are told in the alternate voices of the two authors. Fidler’s voice is empathetic and curious, interweaving retellings of the narrative with connections to the present and Gíslason’s journey from Fidler’s perspective. Gíslason has more at stake in the events of the narrative. He recalls childhood in Iceland, Britain and Australia, and recounts the search for his biological father, both in the past as a young man, and now in the present through his step-brothers and step-sisters, and the famous Iceland genealogical records. The story develops these themes wit