A middle-aged man on a bench in a London park sees Paul McCartney sitting nearby.

He wonders whether he should go over and offer him a book, the Epic of Gilgamesh. But first he must collect his thoughts. His imagination runs away with him, and he thinks back to his own youth . . .

A mother plays 'Yellow Submarine' on the harmonica to her seven-year-old son. She dies and leaves a void. A few months later, The Beatles split up. Another great loss in the boy's life. A distant father doesn't make things easier. Only when the boy starts borrowing books from the library does he understand the direction his life should take.

Yellow Submarine is a masterful and life-affirming novel that sees a boy's childhood linked to the timeless story of that is the Epic of Gilgamesh, to The Beatles, and to Iceland in the eighties. A compelling read, written with great feeling.

Translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton