"This affectionately comical yet beautiful and unique Icelandic mystery ensures the reader sits on the edge of a precipice before understanding strikes."
Thoroughly provocative, punchy, thoughtful and empathetic, I found this novel and its narrator to be an unforgettable reading experience. While his thoughts often put him on a different track to others, Kalmann is a hunter. His discovery of blood in the snow lead the police to believe a missing businessman has been murdered, even though there is no body.
Kalmann has the most wonderfully distinctive voice, it feels open and trusting, and he appears to see the small almost inconsequential things that actually really matter. The plot hums along, the connection to Kalmanm grows, and Joachim B Schmidt encouraged the suspense to hover over me as I read. I found myself waiting, ready to tip one way or the other as my thoughts tripped and twisted.
Translator Jamie Lee Searle does a cracking job, I felt as though I belonged, even while exclaiming at the differences. The impact of Kalmann shouldn’t be underestimated, he creeps under your skin and sits there quite contentedly waiting for your reaction. A worthy LoveReading Star Book, Kalmann is strikingly vivid, surprising, and incredibly powerful too. Loved it!
The LoveReading LitFest invited Joachim B. Schmidt to the festival to talk about Kalmann.
The digitally native, all year round, online literature and books festival, with new content released every week is a free-for-all-users festival.
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Kalmann is the self-appointed Sheriff of Raufarhöfn. Day by day, he treks the wide plains which surround the almost deserted village, hunts Arctic foxes and lays bait in the sea ? to catch the gigantic Greenland sharks he turns into the Icelandic fermented delicacy, hákarl. There is nothing anyone need worry about.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
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Win a Pair of Tickets to Agatha Christie’s The Hollow at a Venue of Your Choice.
Closing date: 15/10/2026
Kalmann is the self-appointed Sheriff of Raufarhöfn. Day by day, he treks the wide plains which surround the almost deserted village, hunts Arctic foxes and lays bait in the sea ? to catch the gigantic Greenland sharks he turns into the Icelandic fermented delicacy, hákarl.
Kalmann features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Fiction in translation, Fiction, Fiction: special features, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books
Paperback. £8.09, down from the £8.99 cover price. In Stock.
Kalmann was written by Joachim B. Schmidt and published by Bitter Lemon Press
Kalmann has 304 pages
£8.09, reduced from £8.99. In Stock.
