Well this is hard to describe , such an unusual book. It’s lightly humorous yet carries some quite dark undertones. The narrator is an Icelandic pompous , selfinterested old fool who doesn’t seem to realise how ridiculous he is. This is how the book opens:
“
I, Valdimar Haraldsson, was in my twenty-seventh year when I embarked on the publication of a small journal devoted to my chief preoccupation, the link between fish consumption and the superiority of the Nordic race.”

In 1949, He gets invited on a cruise on a Norwegian boat where the first mate tells tales of his travels every night after dinner. His name is Caeneus and turns out he is a mythical figure who travelled on the Argo with Jason and his argonauts. The stories are in marked contrast to the speech Haraldsson gives and his normal day to day thoughts and conversations.

I enjoyed this combination of retelling of Greek myth and Norse counterparts with an interesting cast of characters. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it for ages and leaves me thinking I need to read up on some greek classics (Ovid, Euripides are included in the sources)!