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    The Blue Fox: A Novel
    The Blue Fox: A Novel
    The Blue Fox: A Novel
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    The Blue Fox: A Novel

    By Sjón and Victoria Cribb

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Named one The 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Esquire
    Winner of the 2005 Nordic Council Literature Prize—the Nordic world's highest literary honor— Sjón's
    The Blue Fox is part mystery, part fairy tale, and the perfect introduction to a mind-bending, world-class literary talent.

    Set against the stark backdrop of the Icelandic winter, an elusive, enigmatic fox leads a hunter on a transformative quest. At the edge of the hunter's territory, a naturalist struggles to build a life for his charge, a young woman with Down syndrome whom he had rescued from a shipwreck years before. By the end of Sjón's slender, spellbinding fable of a novel, none of their lives will be the same.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 30, 2013
    ISBN9780374709952
    The Blue Fox: A Novel
    Author

    Sjón

    Born in Reykjavik in 1962, Sjón is a celebrated Icelandic author whose novels have been published in over thirty-five languages. He won the Nordic Council's Literary Prize for his novel The Blue Fox(the Nordic countries' equivalent of the Man Booker Prize) and the novel From The Mouth Of The Whale was shortlisted for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The novel Moonstone – The Boy Who Never Was received every literary prize in Iceland, including the coveted Icelandic Literary Prize. CoDex 1962, a novel in three books written over 25 years, was published in Iceland in 2016 to great acclaim. As a poet, librettist, and lyricist, Sjón has published more than a half dozen poetry collections, written four opera libretti, and lyrics for various artists. In 2001 he was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics in the film Dancer In The Dark. Sjón is the president of PEN International's Icelandic Centre and lives in Reykjavik with his wife and two children.

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    Reviews for The Blue Fox

    4/5

    238 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A man tracks a rare blue fox in Iceland - turns out he's a preacher. He kills the fox. Then finds himself in an avalanche, twice. He ends up in a cave with the entrance covered with snow. He imagines the blue fox is able to speak and has a conversation re: electricity. He skins the fox this time and goes crazy - thinks of himself as an animal. Turns out that this "preacher" had been less than kind to a girl with Down's Syndrome (second plot line.) strange, but interesting novella.
    • 3/5
      This short novel was definitely unique, and I may need to re-read it in order to fully appreciate it. I found myself having to back and forth a few times to re-read names and relationships between characters, but I still liked the mystical, almost mythological, elements of the story (the fox, a strange girl, the bleak Icelandic landscape). If anything, reading this did awaken an interest in Icelandic/Nordic literature that I did not really have before.
    • 4/5
      A small Icelandic... Well, I was going to say "novel," but at 115 pages, I think it might actually qualify as a novella. Whatever it is, it's an odd, odd book. We're introduced to a man hunting a blue fox, apparently with something vaguely supernatural going on. Then we jump back in time a few days to meet another man, a man who once took in a young woman with Down's syndrome, despite the fact that this is set during the 19th century, and he'd been exposed to some very ugly ideas about such people. Then it's back to the fox-hunter again, who experiences some very weird things. Through the entire thing I kept wondering why on Earth the author was showing me these things and what the connection was between them. In the end, we're given information that makes sense of it... sort of. It's never remotely clear exactly why what happens happens, or even entirely what it is that happens, which leaves me wondering whether the author was deliberately leaving most of it to our imagination (which would be kind of an interesting choice), or whether there's an allusion here to some Icelandic folklore I'm just not aware of.The writing is odd, too, although I think mostly in a good way. There's a dreamlike quality to it that seems appropriate, and which did kind of pull me along. But in the end, I'm left completely unsure how I feel about any of it, and can't even remotely decide whether I actually liked it or not.Rating: Seriously, I don't know whether this was good or bad. I don't know whether I liked it or not. Um... 3.5/5?
    • 5/5
      Story of relentless pursuit of a blue fox inan Icelandic, surreal landscape. It reflects the harshness of Icelandic life and culture at an earlier time including rather barbaric treatment of Down's Syndrome children. There is also a mysticism that continues even today. Trolls, elves and hidden people are real.
    • 5/5
      Did I read this book, or was it all a strange, beautiful dream? Best read it again to make sure...
    • 3/5
      This book made for a pretty short read and while I was impressed by how the story came together at the end, I was less than thrilled by the novel overall. There were elements I found interesting and moments which were compelling - the beliefs shared about Down syndrome in the 19th century were particularly appalling - yet the story felt confined and narrow in scope. It's possible, as this book was originally written in Icelandic, that something has been lost in translation.
    • 4/5
      I'm not normally given to being moved by books, and certainly almost never by a single sentence, but Sjón strums a chord with:
      “I have seen the universe! It is made of poems!”

      I saw this title in my Goodreads feed, and wanting a temporary respite from some heady stuff, I indulged myself in a cultural diversion. I'd hoped for a brief glimpse into Icelandic culture, and received an odd and lightly informative story to add to the small amount I already knew of Iceland. And despite its oddness, it was quite engaging. One could feel for the titular protagonist (who actually plays but a small part in the story) and extrapolate to the larger issue of what its fate means. I'm not so intuitive as to discern anything more than a simple moral lesson from the companion storyline, and if there is more, without the cultural references, I wouldn't know if I am imparting my reference frames over Icelandic ones.

      Still, when an author grabs my attention by defining the universe as made of poems, it is all the more impactful as I'm not partial to poetry! (Though I can see the poetry of math and physics, and sometimes, the math of poetry...)

      That will stick with me.
    • 4/5
      Interesting Icelandic tale of magical realism that is part fairytale and part mystery. I had to read the last part twice to understand the understated implications, and once I had the “aha” moment I decided that I quite enjoyed this magical little tale.
    • 3/5
      A dreamlike fairy tale from Iceland.
    • 3/5
      This "novel" braids two stories, one deals with a man hunting a fox, the other with the death of a mentally diminished serving girl. At the end with that arbitrary notion that characterizes fairy tales they are bolted together. The meaning and connection are off screen and this is deliberate. Not inappropriate given Sjon fondness for surrealism but I was unsatisfied. If not this, then it could be that and it wouldn't have either more or less meaning. By the end when the main character is either dead or on his way and hallucinates a conversation with the Blue Fox, one is reminded of how in earlier pre Victorian fiction no one cared how coincidental an event was. I was reminded of Les Miserable when they scale a wall only to find that the gardener is someone they know - of all the walls in Paris! At least it was short.
    • 4/5
      This short book is more of a long parable or novella. Don't let the short length fool you — in true parable form the book is packed with meaning and room for interpretation by the reader. Like The Whispering Muse (also by Sjón), the story also has a bit of a Melville feel to it. The main character is a pastor who's hunting a mysterious blue fox. Throughout the pursuit we learn more about the hunter and his character than we do about the prey. A fascinating read that mixes an adventure story and character study.
    • 4/5
      I think I might have made a quite simplistic recommendation for this to someone, as 'kind of like 'Old Man and the Sea', only with a fox instead of a fish and a twat instead of an old man'. Worst recommendation ever for such an awesome book.

      Pretty, sparse and lyrical prose; a short book which I read as slowly as possible because it's such an oddly comforting read, something that makes you want to stay within its pages and keep reading. It is funny as it is moving.

      A lot of myths sprung to mind when I was reading this, which really makes me think that it's worth more than one reading because this story is a bit of a glacier with way more beneath the surface, I'm sure. Awesome.
    • 3/5
      "This Icelandic novella from Bjork's longtime co-writer is a mystical tale of two halves. First we have the tale of man versus cunning vixen as the parson goes out into the winter to hunt a rare blue fox. This is told in short bursts as a battle of minds that veers into mystical fairy tale territory as an avalanche entraps the hunter and the hunted. The other half tells how a naturalist and a girl, Abba, with Downs syndrome rescue each other, and of Fridrik's coping with her death. The mystery of where she comes from is gradually revealed as the two stories come together. A poetic little novel that will certainly appeal to fans of Icelandic great Halldor Laxness. "

    Book preview

    The Blue Fox - Sjón

    I

    (JANUARY 9–11, 1883)

    Blue foxes are so curiously like stones that it is a matter for wonder. When they lie beside them in winter there is no hope of telling them apart from the rocks themselves; indeed, they’re far trickier than white foxes, which always cast a shadow or look yellow against the snow.

    A blue vixen lies tight against her stone, letting the snow drift over her on the windward side. She turns her rump to the weather, curls up, and pokes her snout under her thigh, lowering her eyelids till there’s the merest hint of a pupil. And so she keeps an eye on the man who has not shifted since he took cover under the overhanging drift, here on the upper slopes of Asheimar, some eighteen hours ago. The snow has drifted and fallen over him until he resembles nothing so much as a hump of ruined wall.

    The creature must take care not to forget that the man is a hunter.

    He began his pursuit away south at Botn. The sky was clear and the first blush of day at its winter blackest. The man slid down over the home fields, then set a course north over the Asar to Litla-Bjarg, where it had not drifted as yet.

    Once there, he caught a movement on the brow of the hill. Thrusting a hand inside his clothes, he took out a spyglass, extended it, and put it to his good eye:

    Yes, there was no mistaking it!

    There was a daughter of Reynard on the move.

    She seemed blithely unaware of any danger. All her movements indicated that she was on the prowl for a bite to eat. She went about her business unhurriedly, intent on this sole purpose.

    The man took a closer look at her.

    He bent his thought hard upon her, trying to get an inkling of what she intended, of which way she would go when she had finished her nosing on the crest. All of a sudden she took off at a run; the man couldn’t imagine why. Her whole demeanor showed that she sensed a grave threat. Yet she couldn’t have had the least suspicion of the man—by ordinary means.

    She must have had a foreboding of his intention:

    He’s a man with hunting on his mind.

    The man walked up the hill. He tried to keep the image of the vixen clear in his mind to help him find her again the more easily: She spins over the hard-packed snow like a top.

    Up on the crest he cast around for the vixen’s tracks. He pinched one fox print between thumb and forefinger; it seemed a sizable beast. In the snowflake that lingered on his fingertip lay a gleaming hair—there was no mistaking the color: blue.

    Vertical streaks of cloud in the west.

    Maybe a storm on the way.

    The vixen nowhere to be seen.

    The trail was plain, as far as the eye could see.

    The man walked briskly with the wind at his back. It didn’t much matter now if the vixen caught his scent; she knew he was after her.

    He paused every now and then to cast around, using the same method as before. He bent all his thought on the one goal of working out which way the vixen would run and where he would get within striking distance.

    All at once he receives word of which way she is going and where he will get within striking distance:

    The vixen is going north over the plain. She’ll double sharply to the east with the gravel beds of Melar before her, nothing but stones; a perfect hiding place for a blue fox.

    Was she too intent to take care? Had she given all her mind over to the danger—thereby letting him into her thoughts? Had she paid no heed to warding him off?

    Had the man received a thought-message from the vixen?

    Out on the stony plain the air was still and freezing hard; only the lightest breath touched his cheek. The man saw a bluish bump far to the north. He held himself still. After a while the bump began to stir. And shortly afterward a blue vixen rose from the stones.

    Ha, there she is!

    A rare beast. Dark as earth to look at, with a thick pelt and bushy tail, clearly jumpy as hell. She sprang away in sharp, stiff

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