Letters to Icelanders

Résumé du livre

Reminiscent of W.H. Auden's Letters From Iceland, Betty Jane Wylie has used an epistolary format to reach out to Icelanders past and present. Through a series of letters to grandparents, cousins, children and grandchildren, Wylie assembles the threads of her experiences and those of her ancestors as she weaves an answer to the question "Who am I?"

Letters to Icelanders features early Icelandic and Canadian history, recipes, poetry, sagas, travelogue and tales. As Wylie answers questions for herself, readers will be recovering memories of their own, and be prompted to ask themselves (and their relatives) how they became who they are.

For a nation of immigrants -- from the English, the Scots and the Irish to the South Asians, the Somalis, and the Vietnamese -- such inquiries are essential if we are to feel comfortable in our place in the cultural mosaic.