It is three weeks since the boy came to town, carrying a book of poetry to
return to the old sea captain - the poetry that did for his friend Bárđur. Three
weeks, but already Bárđur's ghost has faded. Snow falls so heavily that it binds
heaven and earth together. As the villagers gather in the inn to drink schnapps
and coffee while the boy reads to them from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Jens the
postman stumbles in half dead, having almost frozen to his horse. On his next
journey to the wide open fjords he is accompanied by the boy, and both must risk
their lives for each other, and for an unusual item of mail. The Sorrow of
Angels is a timeless literary masterpiece; in extraordinarily powerful language
it brings the struggle between man and nature tangibly to life. It is the second
novel in Stefánsson's epic and elemental trilogy, though all can be read
independently.