It is interesting to watch how human beings change through time, and how we don't. In this book, you can look a thousand years into the past and see for yourself. Here is the development of a new country, a large family, a woman, and her lovers, in a culture related to and yet very different from our own. If you have a list of classic books you "should" read, put this one at the top of that list, and then read it.
If you don't know how to pronounce the name, it's "LAX-dye-la saga": the Story of the Valley of the River of Salmon. You can find the place on a map in the northwest of Iceland, near the eastern end of Breidafjord. The author was not a historian, but was writing something very close to history: these are real people who actually lived. The style is something like a novel, except that we never get to know what people are thinking, only what they say and do. The short chapters are easy to consume. Keeping track of the names is hard, and you may want to take notes.
When you have read this book, Njal's Saga and Egil's Saga should be next on your list. You will find some of the same characters in those, who can be encountered there as your new old friends. After all this, your reaction may be like mine: wish you could live then, and really glad you don't.
You will remember this book for the rest of your life. The characters are interesting and well-drawn. Their interactions are unforgettable. Still, I think it strange that Gudrun, the central character, remains something of a cipher to me. She is like a sun who pulls planets into orbit around her, but it is a dark sun. Who knows what was really in her head, or her heart? Or perhaps it is just too obvious.
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