The Swan (orig. Icelandic Svanurinn) is a novel written by the Icelandic writer Guðbergur Bergsson in 1991.
Plot introduction The story is about a nine-year-old girl sent to a country farm in Iceland to serve her probation for shoplifting (which is a characteristic Icelandic sentence). In the novel, the girl finds a kind of freedom by submitting to the inevitable restraints and suffering of remote rural life. She develops a bond with the farmhand, who writes a diary in the evenings. Things are disrupted when the farmer's daughter returns from university unexpectedly.
Awards and nominations In 1991, Guðbergur Bergsson got the Icelandic Literary Prize for his novel, Svanurinn. In 1992, Svanurinn was nominated for the Literary Prize of the Nordic Council.
Translation This is one of the few novels by Guðbergur Bergsson that are available in English. The English version is translated by Bernard Scudder, a member of the team producing an English translation of the Icelandic Sagas.
Adaptation In 2017, the Icelandic film director Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir shot her first movie The Swan, the adaptation of The Swan.'The Swan': Film Review, hollywoodreporter.com, 27 October 2019
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