Iceland PM publishes her first crime thriller novel 

Iceland's Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has published her first thriller novel titled 'Reykjavik'. Jakobsdóttir, a crime fiction fan, has reportedly written the book with her close friend Ragnar Ragnar Jónasson, the Icelandic bestselling author of the 'Dark Iceland' series.

For many, the idea of a head of states to have the time to write a novel may seem absurd and unbelievable but the case of Iceland is different.

The country consists of 375,000 people and has a strong tradition of reading and writing literature, with one in 10 Icelanders publishing a book in their lifetime, according to statistics.

"Obviously, this is not something that I thought I would have any time to do", says the 46-year-old prime minister at the book launch event earlier this week.
The Prime Minister said it was 'liberating to be working on this project during Covid'. The PM said that apart from writing, she doesn't have any other interests.

This is not the first time that a serving PM of Iceland has published a novel. Jakobsdóttir's predecessor David Oddsson published a novel in 1997 while he was in office.

The book 'Reykjavik' tells the story of an unresolved case involving a teenage girl who went missing 30 years ago in Videy, a small island near the Icelandic capital. Years later, a journalist dives into the case to solve it. The story is set in 1986.

The novel was published in Iceland on 25 October and publishers plan to translate it into other languages soon. It is expected to be out in the UK and the US in August 2023.