The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hallgrimur Helgason began as an artist, showing his work in galleries in New York and Paris. He made his debut as a novelist in 1990 and gained international attention with his third novel, 101 Reykjavik, with praise including an apt description by novelist/critic Tim Sandlin: “Imagine if Henry Miller had written Tropic of Cancer on crack instead of wine.” It was subsequently made into a film starring Victoria Abril. In 2001 he received the Icelandic Literary Prize for The Author of Iceland and has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize: first with 101 Reykjavik in 1999 and then Stormland in 2007. A film based on the latter was released in early 2011. The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning is his only novel written in English. The author’s own translation was published in Iceland in 2008 and became a bestseller in Germany in 2010. A father of three, Hallgrimur divides his time between Reykjavik and Hrísey Island.