12 Women + Under a Volcano

October 6, 2026
novel | pb | 186 pgs.
5.5" x 8.5" 
978-1-960385-58-1

Winner of the 1990 Icelandic Literature Prize

Few Icelandic authors have mastered the concise art form of the short story as well as Svava Jakobsdóttir. Her stories provide a powerful insight into Icelandic reality and strangeness, while simultaneously reflecting the multifaceted experience and complex relationship between the individual and society. They highlight the vulnerability and loneliness of humanity and are filled with existential peril as well as a unique beauty.

In 12 Women (1965) & Under a Volcano (1990), Svava Jakobsdóttir showcases her iconic feminism and near-mythological voice, beginning with the sparse, classical nature of her earliest work to the more folkloric later pieces. Svava uses her spare prose and incisive observations to interrogate the mundane, probing the relationship between daily life and the sacred elements of being. In these stories, a mother succors her children in a series of gruesome sacrifices, a brother loses himself to the wiles of a mysterious entity, and the disembodied voice of the wind itself guides a young girl as she enters diaspora in a new country.

With an ephemeral undercurrent of folklore and myth, this collection captures the impermanence of experience and examines the many faces of the phases of life, from childhood to old age. Sleek, meditative, and bold, 12 Women & Under a Volcano celebrates Svava Jakobsdóttir’s talent for observation, her gentle wit, and her powerful insight.

Translated from the Icelandic by Esja Alyssa Matich

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About the Author:

Svava Jakobsdóttir (1930–2004) was one of Iceland’s leading contemporary authors and her short stories, often depicting the lives of women, hold a special place in Icelandic literature. Jakobsdóttir was also acclaimed as a playwright, literary scholar, and a novelist.

About the Translator:

Esja Alyssa Matich has received support for her literary translation work from PEN, Fulbright, the Icelandic Literature Center, and others, and frequently collaborates with UNESCO. She received a PEN/Heim Translation Prize for her translation of Magnús Sigurðsson’s Cold Moons (Phoneme Media, 2017), which composer David R. Scott subsequently translated into a choral symphony. In 2018, Esja translated an anthology in honor of the world’s first democratically elected woman president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (2019). She is the former director of The Poetry Brothel Reykjavik and producer of the upcoming immersive performance The Poetry Apothecary (Ljóðatek), in celebration of UNESCO Reykjavik’s ten-year anniversary. Her translations have appeared in or are forthcoming from PEN America, Exchanges, Words Without Borders, Asymptote, Gulf Coast, and others.

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Praise for Svava Jakobsdóttir:

“Mixing Norse mythology with surreal storytelling, this compelling narrative chronicles the relationship between a mother seeking justice and her seemingly insane daughter. A leading author in Icelandic literature, Jakobsdóttir’s psychological novel draws readers into the world of suspenseful realism.”—World Literature Today

“Svava Jakobsdóttir´s original and compelling stories are simple on the surface but uniquely subtle and powerful in their critical irony, taking the accepted and normal and turning it on its head in unexpected ways. Necessary to understand not only Iceland but the entire 20th century and beyond, not least from a woman´s point of view.”—Katrin Jakobsdóttir

“This novel is clearly a strong reference to the role of the US in Iceland and strong criticism of it, both of the US and the Icelanders who tolerated it or even encouraged it. Her general theme in her works had been a feminist one, that of a woman being treated as a second-class citizen and, in this book, Peter, the husband clearly defers to the lodger, even when his wife asks him to act, just as the Iceland government did with the US bases. It is a very clever attack on this issue and though perhaps too short to be called a novel, it is very readable.”—The Modern Novel