Salka Valka by Halldor Laxness

20

As is so often the case, the fishing company suffered great losses this season, giving the merchant Jóhann Bogesen no other option than to raise the prices of coffee and sugar by a half and various other goods by a third. And the sky remained the same: a dark, dense mass of clouds, because this was such an insignificant village that God apparently did not think it worth the trouble to draw open the curtains covering the sun during the day or polish the stars for the villagers at night. But who could guarantee that it was better in other villages? Steinà 3/4 ór had returned, he who had traveled all over the world, and seemed not to have found it any better elsewhere. People tend to look far for what is close by. Perhaps reality is in Óseyri in Axlarfjörà°ur, after all.