Moonstone, Sjon
Moonstone, Sjon
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Moonstone
The Boy Who Never Was: A Novel

Author: Sjón

Narrator: Vikas Adam

Unabridged: 20 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 08/02/2016


Synopsis

The mind-bending miniature historical epic is Sjon's specialty, and Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is no exception. But it is also Sjon's most realistic, accessible, and heartfelt work yet. It is the story of a young man on the fringes of a society that is itself at the fringes of the world--at what seems like history's most tumultuous, perhaps ultimate moment. Mani Steinn is queer in a society in which the idea of homosexuality is beyond the furthest extreme. His city, Reykjavik in 1918, is homogeneous and isolated and seems entirely defenseless against the Spanish flu, which has already torn through Europe, Asia, and North America and is now lapping up on Iceland's shores. And if the flu doesn't do it, there's always the threat that war will spread all the way north. And yet the outside world has also brought Icelanders cinema! And there's nothing like a dark, silent room with a film from Europe flickering on the screen to help you escape from the overwhelming threats--and adventures--of the night, to transport you, to make you feel like everything is going to be all right. For Mani Steinn, the question is whether, at Reykjavik's darkest hour, he should retreat all the way into this imaginary world, or if he should engage with the society that has so soundly rejected him.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Zoë on January 01, 2018

Read during my holiday 24-hour readathon, #readathonbyzoe! Watch the vlog here: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on November 08, 2019

Did this boy really live or is he but a monument on which to splatter all of our dreams & desires? Is he historical artifact or a faux existence that transcends all forms of classification? In this, a majorly taut & infinitely "intriguesting" short novel by one of the frequent collaborators of worldw......more

Goodreads review by Meike on March 31, 2023

Swedish Academy Nordic Prize 2023 ("little Nobel") for Sjón! Icelandic Literary Prize for Fiction and Icelandic Bookseller's Novel of the Year for "Moonstone" Sjón is a genius – there, I said it. He manages to capture the spirit of Iceland, its roughness as well as its enchanting powers, in prose that......more

Goodreads review by Sue on September 08, 2017

A fable, A metaphor, a parable, a very fevered dream? Just what has Sjon given us in this short novel set in Iceland in the waning days of the Great War, during a time of major change, loss. In this story told largely from the point of view of a sixteen year old gay boy who lives for the joys of the......more

Goodreads review by Great-O-Khan on March 14, 2023

Sjón erzählt in diesem kurzen und kurzweiligem Roman eine Außenseitergeschichte vor eindrucksvoll cineastischer Kulisse. Der namensgebende Junge heißt Máni Steinn Karlsson. Er lebt im Jahr 1918 in Reykjavik. Island steht kurz vor der Unabhängigkeit. Der Vulkan Katla bricht aus. Die Spanische Grippe......more