Andri Snær Magnason is in Budapest the 15th and 16th of April. The Story of the Blue Planet has been published in Hungarian. More information here:

http://www.koinonia.ro/?hir=35

Andri is reading at the Leipziger Buchmesse – then in Muffatwerk Munchen – Monday the 21st of March, then in Felleshus Berlin Tuesday the 22nd of March.

Iceland is the honorary guest of the Frankfurt Bookfair 2011. Three books of Andri Snær Magnason are now available in German:

Traumland, by Orange Press, 2011.

LoveStar, by Lubbe 2010 – (new paperback in 2011)

Die Geschichte auf dem Blauen Planeten, by Leipziger Kinderbuchverlag, 2006.

Two short stories are also available in Flugelrauschen by Steidl Verlag and soon some poetry and a new short story will be published.

I took part in the Chengdu and Beijing international literary festival in the Bookworm. During the visit to China we flew to Xichang and from there we drove to visit a school that was built by donations from Iceland. Soon after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008, the Icelandic Business Forum started a fund-raising for victims in the quake-hit area. RMB 500,000 was raised and a new school was built in Huidong County of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Area of Sichuan Province. Binghua Hope Primary School was formally opened in March 2010. All the kids got a copy of the Blue Planet that had just been published in Chinese. I was not sure if the kids could actually read the book – but here is the proof. We hope that in the future some schools in Iceland will create a formal friendship relationship with the school.

Andri Snær Magnason – is in China. After seeing the film Social Network on board flight HU7148 with Hainan Airlines from Chengdu to Beijing I thought it would be a good idea to make a Facebook status about it. But no Facebook in China. But if you are in China – you can still be my friend and meet me here, tomorrow at 10:00 or 14:00. More about China in the next posts.

Andri Snær Magnason is in one of the documentaries nominated to the Oscars 2011 – Inside Job by Charles Ferguson. The film starts in Iceland, with an interview with Andri Snær Magnason and some footage from Dreamland. The Award ceremony is sunday. Here is a review.

Andri Snær Magnason is off to Ireland to take part in this, the The Northern Lighs Collaboratory in Dublin.

I just finished mentoring in a two week course in the Icelandic Academy of Arts. The name of the course is dialogue and idea of the course was to bring students from the whole school together, discuss art and issues and collaborate in some way. One of the concepts the school asked us to discuss was “New Iceland”. I had a lecture about words and meaning, how words can prevent us from thinking about important things because all the words are worn out. One of those words is actually “New Iceland”. There is a dream among many to rebuild Iceland in a new way. To find new ethics and values, new ways of doing business and politics. But there is quite a lot of disappointment. Those that have claimed to be the “New Iceland” have been making exactly the same mistakes as caused the fall of “Old Iceland”. So when the word comes up – the mind wants to reject it. Our group, with 10 students from visual arts, drama, music, design and architecture decided to address the issue by holding a rave in an abandoned power station. The idea was to make some kind of rain dance for the economy. Rave for the machine. The DJ read texts about investment from a Brian Tracy book improvised some prayers to the great god of the economy. The rave was quite fun. Pictures by Goddur are here. The video is here. The blog of the course is here, by Dori Gislason.

The Nordic Library week starts next monday november 7th – with the theme Magiska Norden or – “The magical north”. This is possibly one of the largest single literary events in the world as participating libraries are more than 2000. From the very beginning the week has been opened with a special ceremony; the electric lights are switched off, the candles are lit and the same text is read out loud, at the same moment in all of the participating libraries.

The Blue Planet by Andri Snær Magnason is one of the books chosen for this event. The other books are “The Shamer’s Daugher” by Lene Kaaberbøl and  ”Let the right one in” by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

The Blue Planet has been published in more than 20 languages. It is published in Finland by Pieni Karhu. In Sweden by Kabusa böcker. In Denmark it was published by Gad, in Greenland by Atuakkiorfik. In the Faroe Islands by Bokadeildin. In Norway it is available as an audiobook by Karviland. The book has been translated to Norwegian by a young girl – so those that want to read it can contact me. The Library week reaches to the Baltic regions – so it is available in Estonia and Lithauenian. The play from the story has been staged in two large city theaters in Lahti and Vaasa in Finland.

Here you can listen to an interview with Andri Magnason on BBC Radio 4, sunday the 10th of the 10th of 10. Andri is somewhere after half an hour of the program. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v6dmf/Broadcasting_House_10_10_2010/

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Sorry – the headline was too tempting. Andri Snær Magnason is interviewed and some footage we shot for Dreamland can be seen in a new film from Charles Ferguson, the director of No End In Sight. INSIDE JOB is the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with financial insiders, politicians, and journalists including Paul Volcker, Eliot Spitzer, Barney Frank, billionaire George Soros, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, IMF president Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and economists Simon Johnson and Nouriel Roubini, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships that have corrupted American politics, regulation, and academia.

Narrated by Academy Award® winner Matt Damon, INSIDE JOB was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

The official site of Inside Job is HERE.