INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

Independent People by Halldor Laxness: A battle of generations and a metaphor of 20th century Iceland, which in less than sixty years changed from a very traditional country of subsistence farmers into a country of hyper-modernity. A poor, stubborn farmer struggles for decades to be independent and have his own land and sheep. Later, his daughter struggles to be independent of her father, and his land and sheep.

First Sentence:
“In early times, say the Icelandic chronicles, men from the Western Islands came to live in this country, and when they departed, left behind them crosses, bells, and other objects used in the practice of sorcery.”