An expatriate Icelander in NYC is asked to translate a manuscript found in a safe. The author is the recently deceased Peter Peterson, a fellow expatriate; who was an extremely wealthy businessman; and a cunning, sinister, and rather nasty old man. The manuscript is Peterson’s first person story of his life. It begins….

“My sins will not be forgiven; I do not ask forgiveness and forgive nothing myself. I have nothing to lose; no one can take anything from me which has not already slipped my grasp, All is vanity…”

You, the potential reader, may wonder why one would read, or continue in a book where the protagonist is so awful, and I certainly asked myself the same, several times; but there is something terribly compelling about this story. Was he always this repellant, emotionally wounded person? Peter’s tale takes us back to his childhood in Iceland, his years as a young man in German-occupied Denmark, and finally to his adult years in Manhattan. What has he done? Will he face it? And can there be absolution as the title might suggest?

Olafsson tells compelling character-driven stories with uncomplicated themes. His characters are intimately-written, humans with a capital “H”. With this novel, Olafsson’s first, I have now read all of his current literary oeuvre (8 books) and will need to wait until later this year for his next book. ( )

A backward and inward looking novel, as an elderly man looks back on a period of his life, just before he dies. He dwells on a decision he made that has continued to make him feel guilty many years later. Well constructed and interesting. ( )

Another masterful story by Iceland's justifiably most-famous author. It is no wonder that Olafsson's works have been translated into 14 languages. He writes about characters that are complex, believable, vulnerable yet strong, fatally flawed. His plot twists and flashbacks are handled with precision and suspense.

This story travels from Iceland to Denmark to Manhattan. As it unfolds you discover the many-layered secrets of a wealthy man who has had everything--and has lost everything. Or has he? ( )