The Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson is considered the greatest talent of his generation. When he has to go to hospital in distant Copenhagen in 1845 after a serious fall, he suspects that his days are numbered. Many people, scholars, poets and politicians visit him, and so Jónas relives his eventful life on his sickbed. He remembers þóra, his great, unfulfilled love, and the dramatic fate of his childhood friend, the shepherd boy Keli, who once disappeared without a trace in Hörgárdalur in northern Iceland. Jonas has never forgiven himself for letting him down because he may have believed the wrong people. Was Keli murdered then? Biography (Arnaldur Indridason) Award-winning writer Arnaldur Indriðason, born in 1961, was a journalist and film critic for Iceland's largest daily newspaper. Today he lives as a freelance writer in Reykjavik.