cover image The Blue Fox

The Blue Fox

Sjón, trans. from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $13 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-374-11445-9

This short novel begins like a fragmented poem as a hunter appears to be losing his grip on reality in the hopes of capturing an elusive blue fox in the snowy, secluded woods: “Now the man has a chance of lessening the gap between himself and the little fox”; “Then he did an about-turn and got on all fours, raising his right leg like a dog pissing on a tussock.” The story moves to the days before the hunt, with an eerie tale of a girl found in a ship’s hold, and then continues into her eventual legacy. The shifts in chronology—just before, just after—create tension, at once elucidating and perplexing. Agent: Trine Licht, Licht & Burr (Denmark). (May 1)