Iceland: Recommended Books and Movies

By Rick Steves

To learn more about Iceland past and present, check out some of these books or films. (And see our similar lists for elsewhere in Europe.)

Books: Nonfiction

Some of these books may be difficult to find outside Iceland, though you may find used copies at online retailers.

  • Bringing Down the Banking System (Guðrún Johnsen, 2013). A finance scholar and banking regulator explains Iceland's colossal 2008 bank failure in layman's terms.
  • Does Anyone Actually Eat This? (Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir, 2014). Iceland's best-known food writer reviews the country's food traditions.
  • Exploring Iceland's Geology (Snæbjörn Guðmundsson, 2016). This concise guide explains the geology behind 50 of Iceland's most popular natural sights.
  • The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman (Nancy Marie Brown, 2008). Brown uses archaeological and scientific evidence to examine the Icelandic saga of Gudrid (Guðríður) the Far-Traveler. Related books by the same author: Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myth (2014) and Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them (2016).
  • The History of Iceland (Gunnar Karlsson, 2000). This well-written general history of the country also comes in a condensed version, called A Brief History of Iceland.
  • How Iceland Changed the World (Egill Bjarnason, 2021). This is a breezy take on Iceland's role in pivotal events ranging from the French Revolution to the Apollo moon landing.
  • Iceland's Secret: The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con (Jared Bibler, 2021). Bibler provides an accessible recap of Iceland's 2008 financial crisis.
  • The Indian (Jón Gnarr, 2015). Iceland's best-known comic actor — and recent mayor of Reykjavík — recalls his childhood, during which he was bullied and sent to a boarding school. Two sequels, The Outlaw and The Pirate, carry his story into adolescence.
  • Lake Mývatn: People and Places (Björg Árnadóttir, 2015). This is a friendly introduction to the popular Lake Mývatn region.
  • The Little Book of the Icelanders (Alda Sigmundsdóttir, 2012). An Icelander returns home after living in America and explains 50 aspects of Icelandic culture with a critical and sometimes cynical eye.
  • Names for the Sea (Sarah Moss, 2013). A British academic writes about the year she spent in Iceland with her husband and kids, teaching university-level English.
  • The Ring of Seasons (Terry Lacy, 2000). An American and long-term Iceland resident describes an idealized year in the life of an Icelandic family.
  • Ripples from Iceland (Amalia Líndal, 1962). In 1949, a young woman from Boston marries an Icelandic student, moves to Reykjavík, and has five children. Her observations are still interesting and relevant.
  • Viking Age Iceland (Jesse Byock, 2001). Byock provides a good introduction to the society and politics of Iceland in its earliest years, from settlement through the 13th century.
  • Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland (Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, 2010). This book focuses on the period from 1870 to 1940, when Iceland grew from a shivering, impoverished colony to a land on the brink of prosperity and independence.
  • The Windows of Brimnes (Bill Holm, 2007). Minnesotan writer and poet Bill Holm, who spent several summers in a cottage in Skagafjörður near the home of his ancestors, reflects on the differences between Iceland and the US.

Fiction

  • Angels of the Universe (Einar Már Guðmundsson, 1993). An intelligent young man descends into mental illness in 1960s Reykjavík.
  • The Blue Fox (Sjón, 2003). This short, poetically written book is a fable about a 19th-century Lutheran pastor who hunts an arctic fox.
  • Burial Rites (Hannah Kent, 2013). Kent writes a fictionalized account of the final months of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, whose 1830 beheading (for taking part in a murder) was the last time the death penalty was used in Iceland.
  • Frozen Assets (Quentin Bates, 2011). This book is one in a series of gripping crime novels starring Gunnhildur "Gunna" Gísladóttir — a shrewd policewoman who in the course of a murder investigation uncovers corruption at the highest levels. It's set against the backdrop of present-day Iceland's rapidly changing society.
  • Heaven and Hell (Jón Kalman Stefánsson, 2015). Stefánsson, a poet, brings his lyrical prose to this novel of a fishing accident and a young boy's search for meaning in remote Iceland in the early 20th century.
  • Independent People (Halldór Laxness, 1934). Generally considered the Nobel Prize-winning Laxness' best novel, this book tells the story of Bjartur, a farm laborer, who jumps at the rare chance to have his own farm. In his single-minded quest to take charge of his destiny, he destroys everyone around him.
  • The Sagas of the Icelanders (edited by Robert Kellogg, 2001). These classic stories, set appealingly amidst the Icelandic landscape, are still fresh after 800 years. Kellogg's edition includes a good selection of sagas, as well as the account of the Greenland settlement.

Film and TV

These films and shows are generally available for streaming in the US. You may also catch them on your Icelandair flight to or from Reykjavík.

  • 101 Reykjavík (2000). This comedy is set in downtown Reykjavík in the 1990s — before tourism took over — when it was still bohemian. Hlynur lives with his mother and is having problems committing to his girlfriend. He winds up involved with Lola, who is his mother's friend — in fact, more than her friend.
  • Devil's Island (1996). This film highlights the adventures of a lower-class Reykjavík family living in the barracks abandoned by the Allies after World War II. It includes big cars, gangs, an Elvis soundtrack, and a main character aptly named "Baddi."
  • Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). In this feel-good parody of the real-life music contest, Will Ferrell plays Lars Erickssong, a native of small-town Húsavík whose dream is to win Eurovision with his long-time partner Sigrit, played by Rachel McAdams.
  • The Icelandic Dream (2000). Tóti tries everything he can to get ahead, but keeps messing up. This dark, realist, somewhat-amateurish comedy explores class differences in Reykjavík and the effects of the former American military presence.
  • Life in a Fishbowl (2014; Icelandic title: Vonarstræti). Three lives intersect during Iceland's financial collapse in this drama: an alcoholic writer who has left his family, a young unmarried mother who has turned to prostitution to survive, and a successful but morally compromised banking executive.
  • Mr. Bjarnfreðarson (2009). This black comedy stars Jón Gnarr as a sadistic misfit, damaged for life by his mother's left-wing activism and trying to regroup after serving prison time for an "accidental" murder. This movie was an extension of the TV show The Night Shift (Næturvaktin), a very popular Icelandic sitcom about three employees at a gas station.
  • No Such Thing (2001). This bizarre American-Icelandic indie film, with its Beauty and the Beast theme, stars Sarah Polley as a journalist who tries to tame the beast — who incidentally killed her fiancé. Half of this offbeat movie is set in Iceland, half in New York.
  • Nói the Albino (2003). In this portrait of small-town adolescence, Nói lives with his grandmother and alcoholic father in the Westfjords, and falls for a girl at the local gas station.
  • Puffling (2023). In this short documentary, teenage girls in the Westman Islands make it their mission to rescue baby puffins still learning how to fly.
  • Remote Control (1992; Icelandic title: Sódóma Reykjavík). Axel goes in search of his mother's lost TV remote and gets mixed up with a gang of mobsters. This low-budget comedy with a hard-rock soundtrack has been called Iceland's equivalent of The Big Lebowski.
  • The Seagull's Laughter (2001). In the 1950s, shapely Freyja returns to Iceland from America, where she has been living with her soldier husband, and stirs up all kinds of trouble.
  • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013). Starring and directed by Ben Stiller, this is worth considering not for its story, but for its use of wondrous Icelandic landscapes — which stand in for Iceland as well as Greenland and Afghanistan.
  • Trapped (2016; Icelandic title: Ófærð). This TV series stars Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as a small-town cop whose personal life is a mess. As the car ferry from the Faroe Islands arrives one day, a body is found floating in the fjord. The pass is snowed in, so none of the passengers can leave town, and investigators from Reykjavík can't arrive. Whodunit?
  • When the Raven Flies (1984). An Irish boy travels to Iceland to take revenge on Vikings who killed his parents.