SHIPS IN THE SKY

An exquisite piece of writing, which recalls Coffin's memorable Lost Paradise, as an Icelander recreates a boyhood, up to the seventh year. Beautifully and tenderly handled, with no sentimentality, tender, vivid, sympathetic, an elder looking back at youth and recalling vividly the games, the imaginings, the hopes and aspirations, the fears, the relation to elders and to passing friendships. Throughout, the pervading spirit of the mother, whose death closes the first chapter of life, for the boy. Scarcely a novel, as it is surely based on the author's own boyhood. An authentic picture of Icelandic peasant life, recalling in spirit and tempo some of Selma Lagerlof's work. Possibly it will win a plus sale for older boys and girls, as in the case of Marbacka.