Published works
The Strongest Woman in the World
The Strongest Woman on Earth is a moving family saga about the search for happiness, personal weakness, and unexpected power.
Happiness is the most dangerous thing of all. It‘s a law of nature that much sorrow always follows this so-called happiness.
Siblings Gunnhildur and Eidur are allies in a family where their parents are never happy at the same time. When their family is torn apart, the siblings are separated – a change that affects their entire lives.
Eidur becomes a peaceful idealist who longs to do good, and Gunnhildur, who posesses superpowers (though she doesn‘t flaunt them), studies cosmetology and becomes a sought-after mortuary cosmetologist.
Not a single superfluous word – destiny and glimpses of existence are flying by, and the reader is compelled to go along from the first page onward.”
-Gudrun Urfalino Kristinsdottir
“To be a person and survive, that is magic, as clearly demonstrated in this story about the world’s strongest woman …”
-Hlin Agnarsdottir
“Rare are the authors who shed a new light on their home country, for the benefit of readers. Those authors are yet more rare who can formulate something that readers have always known about their society, and yet, have never been able to pinpoint it. Steinunn G. Helgadottir is such an author.”
-Kari Tulinius
“In All My Father’s Children, Helgadottir employs an engaging narrative technique incorporating different points of view and, in fact, multiple narrators. Moreover, the reader is constantly surprised, seeing which character is at the center of each chapter.“
-MAGNUS GUDMUNDSSON, FRETTABLADID DAILY
“Steinunn has found her voice as an author of prose works, and she is an undoubted talent.”
-EINAR FALUR INGOLFSSON, MORGUNBLADID DAILY
“All My Father’s Children is a brilliant book by one of the most interesting and talented writers I’ve read in a long time.”
-ADALSTEINN SVANUR SIGFUSSON
“The book is well-written, hilarious in parts, and challenges the reader to consider whether blood is really thicker than water.”
-VIKAN WEEKLY
“…with a personal style and a magic that is really catching … and the humour is simply wonderful.”
-KOLBRUN BERGTHORSDOTTIR, KILJAN/ICELANDIC NATIONAL TV
“A great sense of humour!”
-EGILL HELGASON, KILJAN/ICELANDIC NATIONAL TV
“It’s a nice touch to let characters others than Janus and his siblings tell the story of the time he got to meet his half-siblings, or else when he didn’t … There is no lack of humour or spontaneous storytelling in this book.”
-LIFDU NUNA
All My Father’s Children
Some people don’t make life any more complicated for themselves than they have to—they live and let live. But Janus is not one of these people. Upon discovering that he has eleven half-siblings with whom he shares the same father, he embarks on a journey to find all of them, a journey that takes him far and wide across the country. These meetings have mixed results—not everyone’s willing to meet a brother they didn’t even know existed. But Janus doesn’t let that stop him and wanders from one place to another, entering the everyday realities of these unknown relations, all of whom are swimming around in their own worlds like fish in a bowl.
A skillfully woven family drama filled with characters the likes of whom rarely find their way into novels, but who nevertheless are surprisingly familiar.
“We get a global picture of the adventurous trip Janus made throughout the country looking for his half-siblings. Furthermore, we get a varied palette of the author’s imagination and her ingenuous use of points of view. This is a polyvalent narration conveying the spirit of the seventies with humour, warmth, mystery, and horror. It will be interesting to see how Steinunn will evolve, with her obvious and unusual talents…”
THORGEIR TRYGGVASON, BOOK CRITIC
“… at the back of my mind, while writing this book, I had the thought that people are always searching for something. It’s a collective search and many of us do not even know what we are searching for. You can call it a father or a mother. It does not matter. What really matters is the need and the search. In this search you need there to be something in front of you other than the void.
Take Janus for example; he is frightened of the open sky and finds it difficult to look up into it. It is a terrifying thought how empty space is while at the same time it is full of things unknown to us.”
-MAGUS GUDMUNDSSON /FRETTALADID DAILY
“It is really fascinating to be able to get Janus’ history from many points of view and from different characters. …
I feel this book manages to capture the variety of life in a unique manner. Each single character is unique for a reason, and if the author does not expose such a reason from the onset with a single phrase, the reader will be able to grasp the essence by reading between the lines, or by making it up while reading … It was a rare pleasure to read this book …”
-KATRIN LILJA, LESTRARKLEFINN
Voices from the Radio Operator‘s House
A young man sets out to look for eleven halfbrothers and sisters, all born in the same year; a love-shy bookseller haunts and spies on new readers; two very different sisters run a kiosk in the centre of old Reykjavik while a bunch of down-and-outs drink themselves into a new and feathered existence.
A lonely radio operator communicates over the airwaves in between writing literary fiction. He becomes suspicious when other writers mysteriously pre-empt him in publishing his books. With the help of science he manages to turn defence into attack.
“I began to suspect that my stories were perhaps of the kind silence cannot hide.”
-Steinunn G. Helgadóttir
• Selected as one of the 10 New Voices from Europe 2017
• The Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize 2016
"... juicy and full of surprises and entertaining anecdotes ... a good and joyous debut of a new novelist ... Helgadottir is a professional artist ... well-written, sophisticated and intriguing work"
-MORGUNBLADID DAILY
"The text is brimming with humanity..."
-THE JURY OF THE ICELANDIC WOMEN‘S LITERATURE PRIZE 2017
TRANSLATIONS
All my Fathers Children, novel (Mahrousa for publishing, information & Press Service, Cairo, Egypt; forthcoming 2026).
The Strongest Woman in the World, novel (OpenLetter; forthcoming 2026) translated by Larissa Kyzer.
“A Radio Operator Goes Hunting”, short story West Branch. February 2024. Translated by Larissa Kyzer.
“On the Edge: Writing from Iceland.” At journey´s End, short story. Published in Words Without Borders, 2021. Translated by Larissa Kyzer.
“Ascension” by Steinunn G. Helgadóttir. Published in Quiddity (US), 2018. Translated by Larissa Kyzer.
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Steinunn G. Helgadóttir. Published in Lunch Ticket (US), 2018. Translated by Larissa Kyzer.