The Reputation

Starkadur Levi is the main character of this novel that tracks the attempt of one man ot recover his reputation. Based on a real life character who was very much involved in the recent financial crash of 2008 in Iceland, this novel has been very controversial in Iceland and has now reached an English-reading audience with this fantastic new translation by David McDuff.

The novel explores in humourous, ironic and sometimes tragic ways what it means to recover your reputation when it has been irretrievably corrupted and where no attempt at escape or asking for forgiveness seems to work. Starkadur has been a man with everything and he lost it all in his greed and his naive belief in his own self-importance and indestructability. Having attempted to escape round the world he once again ends back home in Iceland where he is spat at, attacked and vilified and threatened with prison and where everyone seems to know what he has done and been affected by it. What is his way out? How can he recover anything of his own sense of self-worth and self-respect?

The answer lies in The Firm, a small, discreet company that specialises in recreating people who need to lose their previous identity.During Starkadur's treatment he slowly comes to know exactly the implications and consequences of his actions with often heartbreaking clarity. But on the way Bjarni Bjarnason treats us to some wise and wonderfulyl inspiring visions that challenge and permeate our capitalist world. His narrrative skills take us from the dusty highways of utterly impoverished India to the highest realms of consumer capitalism and in between reveals what we all know to be true: money does not buy you happiness. And escaping who you were isn't necessarily easy no matter how desperate you are.