{"product_id":"boudoir","title":"Boudoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003eSeptember 8, 2026\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003enovel | pb | 190 pgs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e5.5\" x 8.5\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan color=\"#b45f06\" style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e978-1-960385-54-3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe latest novel from the winner of the 2021 European Union Prize for Literature.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTeddý lives with her parents on a farm in the Icelandic wilderness. It’s 1962, and the world is changing, although you wouldn’t know it from the stark quiet of the lava fields and mountains that mark the boundaries of the young woman’s existence. But after two chance encounters, Teddý’s dreams of a world beyond begin to crystallise, albeit in strange and unexpected ways, as we follow one woman’s life over five decades, from farm to city to the skies. Taking us from the grandeur of rural Iceland to the glossy, sticky world of 1970s air travel, via check fraud, thwarted ambition and lost astronauts, \u003ci\u003eBoudoir\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel about reinvention, dislocation, and the forceful gravity of the lives and selves we think we’ve left\u003cspan\u003e behind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b45f06;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSigrún Pálsdóttir\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis an Icelandic writer and historian. She completed a PhD in the History of Ideas at the University of Oxford in 2001, after which she was a research fellow at the University of Iceland. She was the editor of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSaga\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the principal peer-reviewed journal for Icelandic history, from 2008 to 2016. Pálsdóttir’s work has been nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize, the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize, the Hagþenkir Non-fiction Prize and the DV Culture Prize. Her book \u003cem\u003eSigrún og Friðgeir\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eUncertain Seas\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) won the Icelandic Booksellers’ Prize in 2013, and her second novel \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eEmbroidery\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (available from Open Letter, as is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHistory. A Mess\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) was awarded the European Union Prize for Fiction 2021.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Translator:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLytton Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis a poet, professor, and translator from the Icelandic. His most recent translations include works by Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Jón Gnarr, Ófeigur Sigurðsson, Bragi Ólafsson, and Guðbergur Bergsson. His most recent poetry collection, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe All-Purpose Magical Tent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, was published by Nightboat. Having earned his MFA and PhD from Columbia University, he currently teaches at SUNY Geneseo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #b76003;\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for Sigrún Pálsdóttir:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What I admire most about Pálsdóttir's writing is her ability to hide a strictly structured course of events under a gliding, occasionally deliberately (but not distractingly) chaotic style; her ability to orchestrate the random [. . .] and the way she covers real tensions and worries with a quilt of details, as they are so often covered in life.—\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eRein Raud, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Brother \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Pálsdóttir writes with the hand of a mystery author and the mind of a postmodernist, teasing out her protagonist’s problem while playing with literary forms, fragmenting timelines, and injecting fierce irony.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Fans of the nouveau roman—Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute, etc.—will be right at home here.”—\u003cspan style=\"color: #444444;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sigrún Pálsdóttir","offers":[{"title":"pb","offer_id":47578593460460,"sku":null,"price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"ebook","offer_id":47578593493228,"sku":null,"price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/5792\/files\/boudoir.jpg?v=1777313890","url":"https:\/\/www.openletterbooks.org\/products\/boudoir","provider":"Open Letter","version":"1.0","type":"link"}