It is perhaps the most famous legend in Swiss history – the story of William Tell – and Joachim B. Schmidt transforms it into a page-turner, a thriller, an event: Constructed from nearly a hundred fast-paced scenes and featuring twenty different protagonists, the narrative races towards its explosive showdown like a lit fuse. Neither a retelling nor a rehash, this is a blockbuster of a book: think The Revenant in the Alps or Game of Thrones in Altdorf.

He is the self-appointed sheriff of Raufarhöfn, and has everything under control. There’s no need to worry. Day by day, he treks the wide plains which surround the almost deserted village, hunts Arctic foxes and lays shark bait in the sea — to process the fish into the Icelandic fermented delicacy, hákarl. But inside Kalmann’s head, the wheels sometimes spin backwards. One winter, after he discovers a pool of blood in the snow, the swiftly unfolding events threaten to overwhelm him. But with his naive wisdom and pure-hearted courage, he makes sure everything takes a turn for the better. There’s no need to worry.

»It can get pretty dark beneath a polar bear.«
Kalmann

The far north of Iceland, around the turn of the nineteenth century. With his rope ferry, Jón Magnússon Ósmann transports people, animals and wares across the waters of the Skagafjord. He’s a fisherman and a seal hunter who sees ghosts and elves; a friend of all mankind who cares for and shelters those in need; and he’s also a God-fearing drinker and poet. Larger-than-life, strong and companionable, and yet so tormented by his own fate that the floods he has sailed for over forty years begin to lure him in. Bursting with life, this is an almost unbelievable story based on a real life.

Kalmann is in hot water. More specifically, he’s at the FBI Headquarters in Washington. All he wanted was to visit his American father – but his dad leaves him high and dry, and before Kalmann knows it, he’s on a plane back to Iceland. Yet there’s no rest to be found in the far north either. There’s been a murder, and the clues lead back to America and the Cold War. Who is going to solve this explosive case? Correctamundo: Kalmann, the famed sheriff of Raufarhöfn.