Having spent 18 years in humiliating servitude to another shepherd, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his own flocks unbeholden to any man, but Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, emotionally intense and intimate in its homely detail. This 1934 novel by Nobel Laureate Halldor Laxness remains his masterpiece, a family portrait and a comic indictment of Icelandic history.

"Reader rejoice! At last this funny, clever, sardonic and brilliant book is back in print.... One of my Top Ten Favorite Books of All Time."—Annie Proulx