Win Arnaldur Indriðason's "Hypothermia"
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| Arnaldur Indriðason and your humble blogkeeper at Bouchercon 2008. |
Among other things, the book offers a neat solution or two to the problem of maintaining what readers like about a series while keeping the narrative fresh.
I will send a copy to the first reader who answers this skill-testing question correctly:
What is the name of the unfamiliar letter in Arnaldur Indriðason's second name?
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Liz in the Mid-Atlantic United States knew that the ð in Arnaldur Indriðason's second name is the letter eth (its sound is like that of the th in them.) She wins the U.S. softcover edition of Arnaldur's Hypothermia, a fine novel with a cool title. Congratulations, Liz.***
Read all my posts about Arnaldur. And read my essay about him in Following The Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction.© Peter Rozovsky 2011
Labels: Arnaldur Indriðason, Bouchercon 2008, contests, Iceland
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:04 AM
23 Comments:
That's a great quiz question, because it's one all of us Indriðason fans should have asked ourselves already.
I looked it up, so I know, but I'll leave the prize for someone who doesn't work in a bookstore.
I've read the book. Surely that has been out a while?
Oh, you met him! Lucky, lucky you. He is my favorite of any male, crime fiction, living writer. (did I leave out any adjectives?) I'm impatiently waiting for Outrage to be available in the US.
Seana, cheating is allowed, so you could have looked it up.
I.J., I've read it, too, but not in a U.S. paperback edition. The U.S. paperback's publication date is Oct. 3.
Nan, I'd only read Jar City when that photo was taken at Bouchercon 2008, so I had yet to find out how good Arnaldur really was.
Ah so. It was the hc I read. Are you posting from Bouchercon? I lost track of the dates.
No, Bouchercon is next week: Sept. 15-18. That Bouchercon photo is from 2008.
Peter
The Torah tells us to try something three times before giving up.
I'm glad I did, I liked Hypothermia much better than both Jar City and that unfortunate Hitler-survived-the-war-and-came-to-Iceland Indridason thriller.
The number three suggests permanence and stability in Jewish thought, and I have heard it has some significance in other religions as well. I must be unstable because it took me just two of Arlandur's books before I decided he was a hell of a writer.
Your experience is not all that different from mine. While I admired Jar City's ingenious use of its Icelandic setting, it seemed all concept to me the first time I read it. I read it again while researching my Arnaldur essay for Following the Detectives, and, for some reason, it was a much richer experience then.
His next book is part of the Erlendur series after what myst have been an odd interlude in Operation Napoleon.
Hmmm -- interesting about the number three, did not know this but am glad to know it now.
I am glad to learn about the unknown-to-English speakers letter in Indridason's name. Am very glad that Liz won Hypothermia. May she enjoy it and loan it to friends, too.
I bought this book from Book Depository last year and loved it. Indridason is a great writer, although I liked some books better than others. Hypothermia is a terrific read -- character development, mystery, sense of place -- even with 14 Icelandic towns and rivers mentioned in one paragraph which rivaled Nora Ephron's satire on the Millenium trilogy.
But I'm still moping about Hypothermia not winning last year's Dagger award. Oh, well, I guess it's time to give that up.
I have Outrage here from Alibris. (Book Depository informed me that the publisher wouldn't sell through them to U.S. buyers.) And I'm just trying to finish Hotel Bosphorus and The Hands that Tremble first before I dig in.
And since I have Hypothermia, it might be a good reread.
You're a step a head of me. I don't have Outrage. Arnaldur is one of the best.
As for awards, why get bent out of shape? Making the shortlist is a big enough honor, I think.
Yes. That's a realistic view. It's just that Hypothermia was so-o-o-o superior to so much writing these days. (And I have issues with any books with ghosts and plot lines from 100 years ago, but that's just me.)
Loaned Hypothermia to a friend who does not read mysteries and she thought it was excellent.
I had not thought about this before, but there is much in Arnaldur's novels to attract readers who might not otherwose read mysteries.
I don't wish to steal your thunder but perhaps the moment for revealing the answer to the quiz may have arrived?
I've no thunder to steal, so-- Wait. so you don't think I should turn this into a contest?
I think it's more she's wondering when the contest will be over and people can learn about that letter.
Hmm, I'm not sure there's much to learn about the letter other than that it occurs in a number of Germanic languages and might be Irish in origin. One thing I did learn is that in Old English, both eth (ð) and thorn (þ) could signal a voiced sound ("th" in "them" as opposed to the unvoiced "th" in "thing.") I had thought it stood for the voiced sound only.
Irish? Now that's surprising.
So if I were to write it like it would sound to an American ear, it would be something along the lines of Indrithason?
As far as I can tell, an American would pronounces it Indrithason, with the th pronounced as it is in "them." But I think most Americans would pronounce Indrithason with the unvoiced th/ It's a good thing Icelanders are generally referred to by their first names, so he'd be Arnaldur, accent on the first syllable.
Two years ago, by the way, I ad to master the pronunciation of Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. This year, it's Kaaberbøl, Agnete, Börge, and Roslund, the last of which is pronounced ROOS-l'nd. I relish the challenge.
If anyone is up to it, Peter, it's you.
I have had a run of good v words in responding here today: spyraw, thwoops and now this latest one--slythr.
I think Lewis Carroll used one of those.
I got some pronunciation help from a video clip on Roslund and Hellström's Web site in which they introduce themselves. And I received advice from a couple of Danes on Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbøl. I got somewhat conflicting advice on pronouncing Agnete, which leads to believe I now have some insight into differences among Danish accents. My pronunciation surprise of 2011, though, has been that Börge Hellström seemed to pronounce his last with strong and equal stress on both syllables. So I will do the same.
A quick and relatively painless explanation of lost words in the English alphabet...
takeourword.com/TOW142/page1.html
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