Red Milk

By Sjón

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY'S NORDIC PRIZE 2023

A timely and provocative novel about a mysterious Icelandic neo-Nazi and the enduring global allure of fascism.

In England in 1962, an Icelandic man is found dead on a train bound for Cheltenham Spa. In his possession, policemen find a map on which a swastika has been drawn with a red pen. Who was he, and where was he going?

In a novel that reads as both biography and mystery, the internationally celebrated novelist Sj?n tells the story of Gunnar Kampen, the founder of Iceland's antisemitic nationalist party, with ties to a burgeoning network of neo-Nazi groups across the globe. Told in a series of scenes and letters spanning Kampen's lifetime--from his childhood in Reykjav?k during the Second World War, in a household strongly opposed to Hitler and his views, through his education, political radicalization, and final clandestine mission to England--Red Milk urges readers to confront the international legacy of twentieth-century fascism and the often unknowable forces that drive some people to extremism.

Based on one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that operated in Reykjav?k in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this taut and potent novel explores what shapes a young man and the enduring, disturbing allure of Nazi ideology.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374603367
• ISBN13: 9780374603366
• Release Date: January 2022
• Publisher: MCD
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.7"