---
product_id: 47116119
title: "The Fish Can Sing"
price: "S$35"
currency: SGD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/47116119-the-fish-can-sing
store_origin: SG
region: Singapore
---

# The Fish Can Sing

**Price:** S$35
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** The Fish Can Sing
- **How much does it cost?** S$35 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/47116119-the-fish-can-sing)

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## Description

The Fish Can Sing [Halldor Kiljan Laxness, Magnus Magnusson] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Fish Can Sing

Review: Wise and sweet and old - At first the setting of this strange land to me and the archaic stilted language and time, maybe early 20th?, was off-putting. But the story grows in character and charm. Loved it by the end.
Review: Highly enjoyable - This is a highly enjoyable book. It tells an interesting story in very poetic language. I paticularly like the way the narrator describes the main character's falling in love. This is an examplary novel about being someone in life without losing your own identity on the way there.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #3,637,185 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #7,640 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (328) |
| Dimensions  | 5.25 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 1860466877 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1860466878 |
| Item Weight  | 11.2 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 246 pages |
| Publication date  | January 1, 2000 |
| Publisher  | Harvill Pr |

## Images

![The Fish Can Sing - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DHT1BCSRL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wise and sweet and old
*by M***E on August 19, 2024*

At first the setting of this strange land to me and the archaic stilted language and time, maybe early 20th?, was off-putting. But the story grows in character and charm. Loved it by the end.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly enjoyable
*by L***S on December 14, 2013*

This is a highly enjoyable book. It tells an interesting story in very poetic language. I paticularly like the way the narrator describes the main character's falling in love. This is an examplary novel about being someone in life without losing your own identity on the way there.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Home is...
*by F***E on March 3, 2012*

Halldór Laxness is undoubtedly Iceland's most famous writer. The story goes that he was in the middle of writing "Brekkukotsannall" - translated (surprisingly) as The Fish Can Sing - when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature (in 1955). Did this recognition change the way he completed the novel? May be, maybe not. Still, reading it with that knowledge in the back of my mind, the novel turns for me into much more that the intimate portrait of a "family", a small village community at the turn of the last century and a coming-of-age story of a young orphan boy, Alfgrimur. Couched in the narrator's stream of consciousness, gracefully integrating the child's view of his world with that of his older, reflective self, we discover the narrator/author's insightful musings on tradition and modernity, loyalty and betrayal, poverty and wealth, obscurity and celebrity. In his descriptions of people and place, Laxness's affecting sense of irony often makes light of the precarious situation in which most of the traditionally-minded locals in the "village" find themselves. The closely-knit community - fishermen, former navy men, the local priest, and the "old women" who look after them all - at the outskirts of what will eventually become Iceland's capital, Reykjavik - are lovingly portrayed and contrasted with the up-and-coming, wealthier merchant class that threatens the perceived peaceful and harmonious life of the community. The latter also represent the pro-Danes group as well as the influence of the wider world; a world that will threaten the livelihood of the local fishermen, like Bjorn of Brekkukot, Alfgrimur's grandfather... Young Alfgrimur lives, in his own words, a happy childhood, despite the fact that he was abandoned by his mother and left at Brekkukot shortly after birth... He is happiest when fishing with his grandfather; closest to the old woman he calls "grandmother", even though he knows "nothing about her". Brekkukot, an old turf cottage, is an unofficial guesthouse where various short- or long-term visitors are staying: some come to die and are buried in the nearby church yard, others live out their retirement and others are just transients. All share the cramped place and even beds in the "midloft"; it is the social centre of Alfgrimur's odd "family". The novel starts with a series of short, unconnected chapters, more like vignettes, through which the older narrator introduces the odd collection of "guests" in Brekkukot and some of the neighbours; all of them appear totally normal to young Alfgrimur and fill his notion of his "world". His and the wider world come together, in a way, for Alfgrimur at least, in the person of Gardar Holm, the famous son of the village, turned world-traveling opera singer. He returns from time to time to Reykjavik and, surprisingly or maybe not, strikes some kind of friendship with young Alfgrimur. In turn, the boy admires the older man, even embarks on teaching himself to sing the funeral hymn as well as Schubert's "Der Erlkönig". However, his idol is not all that he seems to be and Alfgrimur over time learns more lessons from their encounters than he realizes for a long time. I must admit that I took quite some time before I was able to engage with the novel and its characters. Its richness and beauty only really came together for me after I finished the last page and went back, picking out sections and chapters, reflecting on the underlying themes of the novel, exploring its depth and wisdom. [Friederike Knabe]

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*Product available on Desertcart Singapore*
*Store origin: SG*
*Last updated: 2026-03-17*