"Een arme, stugge IJslandse boer probeert levensvervulling te vinden als emigrant bij de Mormonen in Utah."
"An idealistic Icelandic farmer journeys to Mormon Utah and back in search of paradise in this captivating novel by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness. The quixotic hero of this long-lost classic is Steinar of Hlidar, a generous but very poor man who lives peacefully on a tiny farm in nineteenth-century Iceland with his wife and two adoring young children. When he impulsively offers his children's beloved pure-white pony to the visiting King of Denmark, he sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that leaves his family in ruins and himself at the other end of the earth, optimistically building a home for them among the devout polygamists in the Promised Land of Utah. By the time the broken family is reunited, Laxness has spun his trademark blend of compassion and comically brutal satire into a moving and spellbinding enchantment, composed equally of elements of fable and folkore and of the most humble truths."
"A Mormon bishop convinces Steiner to leave his home in Iceland and move to 19th century Utah."
"Het veulen, dat door een IJslandse boer wordt gevonden, schijnt zijn gezin eerst geluk te brengen, maar brengt het tenslotte tot de ondergang."
"Historische roman over de Mormonen kolonie in Amerika in de vorige eeuw, waarheen een arme Ijslandse boerenfamilie emigreerde, die later naar zijn geboortegrond terugkeerde."