Svava Jakobsdóttir belongs to a small group of authors who changed Icelandic storytelling in the 1950s and 1960s and are usually labeled "the modernists." Categorizing her works, however, is not easy. To call them "modernistic" is an oversimplification and overlooks that many of her stories are written within the tradition of social and psychological realism. But Svava's relation to "realism" is thought-out and critical and manifests itself not least in her use of language. The complicated style of her work is perhaps best described by recalling the various labels that have been attached to her authorship. It has been called fantastic, grotesque, feminist, and socially critical, to name only a few, and Svava Jakobsdóttir herself has been categorized as a polemic writer who advocates women's rights and social reform, as well as recognized as a writer who broke new ground in Icelandic prose.

Svava...