Island of the Doomed
By (Author) Stig Dagerman
Translated by Laurie Thompson
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
25th January 2012
United States
General
Non Fiction
Fiction: general and literary
839.7372
Paperback
352
Width 140mm, Height 216mm, Spine 25mm
In the summer of 1946, while secluded in August Strindbergs small cabin in the Stockholm archipelago, Stig Dagerman wrote Island of the Doomed. This novel was unlike any other yet seen in Sweden and would establish him as the countrys brightest literary star. To this day it is a singular work of fictiona haunting tale that oscillates around seven castaways as they await their inevitable death on a desert island populated by blind gulls and hordes of iguanas. At the center of the island is a poisonous lagoon, where a strange fish swims in circles and devours anything in its path. As we are taken into the lives of each castaway, it becomes clear that Dagermans true subject is the nature of horror itself.
Island of the Doomed is a chilling profile of terror and guilt and a stunning explorationwritten under the shadow of the Nuremberg Trialsof the anxieties of a generation in the postwar nuclear age.
"Undoubtedly one of the strangest novels of the twentieth century." J. M. G. Le Clzio, from the Foreword
Stig Dagerman (19231954) was regarded as the most talented young writer of the Swedish postwar generation. Among the many works he wrote during his tragically short life is his classic, German Autumn (Minnesota, 2011).
J. M. G. Le Clzio received the Stig Dagerman Award and later the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008.
Laurie Thompsons many translations include the works of Henning Mankell, Hkan Nesser, and Mikael Niemi.