Jar city (2004)

An old man's murder draws Erlendur from present-day Reykjavik into older family histories and biological records. The novel makes Iceland's networks of kinship an investigative resource with an uncomfortable cost to privacy. Past and present cannot be separated merely by moving to another address. A good choice for readers interested in how a small society stores information about itself, with a bleak emotional atmosphere. Bernard Scudder translates the selected English work.