Windswept Dawn

Glyn Joness translation captures the enthusiasm, charm and humour of a great writers first novel. Windswept Dawn is a Faeroese Under the Milk Wood revealing the whole personality of a small closely knit community. William Heinesen brings to life a whole host of vivid, larger than life character from the sectarian preacher, Reinhold Vaag, the drunken, philosophising solicitor Morberg, the well-meaning voyeur Vitus, to the firebrand shopkeeper Landrus and the bizarre teacher Balduin who is intent on reaching spiritual perfection. We see the large cast of characters battling against the elements, the hostile sea and the rough terrain while the Lutherans and the Plymouth Brethren fight for their souls in a changing world. The main character in the novel is the Faroes Island themselves. William Heinesen is generally considered to be one of the greatest if not the greatest Scandinavian novelist of the twentieth century.