Imagine co-authoring a novel with your Prime Minister.
It sounds baffling, especially if you live in the UK (would you co-author something with Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak?), but it’s exactly what Ragnar Jónasson did. Jónasson is the bestselling writer of Icelandic noir murder mysteries, most famous for the Dark Iceland series featuring police detective Ari Thór Arason. For his latest book, he sat down to write with the Prime Minister of Iceland: Katrín Jakobsdóttir.
In their Book Festival appearance (chaired by the great Val McDermid), they discussed their writing process further. It turns out they didn’t literally ‘sit down’ to write together: they would allocate chapters per person and then swap over to edit each other’s work. The result was Reykjavík: a 349-page long mystery about a young girl who’s been missing for thirty years and a modern-day journalist desperate to make a name for themselves by solving the case.
The most fascinating element of this talk was the personalities of the two ‘Partners in Crime’. Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s political background and experience of public appearances were very clear. She seemed as comfortable onstage as during a walk in the park. Founder of the Left-Green Movement (a party that values democratic socialism, feminism, and environmentalism), she is also a great lover of crime fiction, and this led to some phenomenal speeches from her about how vital fiction is. Needless to say, she was an impressive lady to listen to. She announced that if more politicians (or “everyone in general”, in her words) read – and even wrote – more fiction, the world would be a far better place. Fiction can make us better people in our work outside of it.
Ragnar Jónasson was also incredible to listen to – and in a different way. Though equally charming, he was far more unassuming. Dressed in a casual jumper and jeans, he remained reserved with arms folded throughout the talk, answering in witty, shorter remarks, as opposed to the elaborate speeches of Katrín Jakobsdottír. (When asked what he learned from the collaboration with the Prime Minister, he simply responded, “never go into politics”.)
This made for some great humour from him and, at times, some charming humility. He revealed how much he loved collaborating on this new novel and said he did not mind the relinquishing of creative autonomy in the slightest. He also cracked jokes about him (allegedly) losing all the arguments when disagreements cropped up between them. He even signed my book after the show, even though it wasn’t the one he was there to talk about. What a class act. As a fan of his work, it was a privilege to hear him speak.
The inevitable result of this, however, was that Katrín Jakobsdóttir did the majority of the talking. Those attending the event as fans of Ragnar Jónasson’s literature may have left somewhat disappointed, fascinating and impressive as the Icelandic Prime Minister was.
It was also a blessing – and perhaps too much of a blessing! – for the event to be chaired by Val McDermid. Because she herself is such a characterful, fascinating and hilarious personality, I had just as many questions for her as I did for the interviewees! Being the chairwoman, she obviously took a backseat in the conversation, which was a shame for the audience, given that she is writing royalty.
Regardless, she interviewed them very well, and she told a hilarious story about stealing her mother’s library card to be able to read more Agatha Christie. (“I have to get books for my mum – she’s not well,” was her cover). She was outed when these librarians attended one of her book events and saw her mother very much alive…it turns out she hadn’t been unwell for years.
On that note, Reykjavík is dedicated to Agatha Christie because of the pivotal role she played in the lives of both Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Ragnar Jónasson. (Ragnar Jónasson translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic in his youth! The man’s a genius.)
As McDermid is also a Christie fan, this was a charming point of consensus. Fiction, as Katrín Jakobsdóttir rightly pointed out, is so important. It can broaden our horizons so widely (e.g. to the snowy claustrophobia of Iceland’s fishing villages, when many of us will never travel there). What’s more, the influence of crime fiction as a specific genre would not be nearly as strong were it not for the great Dame Agatha Christie.
Reykjavík was released on 17 Aug and is available to buy from all major booksellers, including, for the duration of the festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival Village Bookshop at the Edinburgh College of Art.
Image via Freddy Lowe