8.2 /10 1 Votes
Original title Draumalandið Language Icelandic ISBN 9979-3-2738-3 OCLC 185021869 | 4.1/5 Goodreads Country Iceland Publication date 2006 Originally published 2006 Adaptations Dreamland (2009) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher Mál og menning, Reykjavík Similar Andri Snær Magnason books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation is a book written by the Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason. It became the number one best-selling book in Iceland in 2006, and was winner of the Icelandic Literary Award, and the Icelandic Bookseller Prize the same year. The English edition of the book has a foreword by the Icelandic artist Björk. The Icelandic version's title is Draumalandið - sjálfshjálparbók handa hræddri þjóð (English: Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation).
Content
Dreamland is Andri Snaer Magnason's critique against the current decision taken by the Icelandic government to dam Iceland's rivers in order to produce energy that can be delivered to aluminium smelters. Magnason describes how Iceland's government actively have pursued the idea to attract foreign aluminium companies to Iceland with the promise of the "cheapest energy in the world". The government advertisement described Iceland's energy potential as 30 TWh/year. Magnason argues in the book that in order to accomplish this, the majority of Iceland's rivers would need to be exploited, with the consequence that some of Iceland's most known waterfalls such as Dettifoss which is Europe's most powerful waterfall, and Gullfoss which together with Thingvellir and Geysir makes up the Golden Circle.
It is set up as a series of thoughts on issues in modern Iceland and the past Iceland and deals heavily with the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant and other similar works being done. It was the best sold book in Iceland in 2006 and raised Icelanders' interest in environmentalism by a large amount. In the book the Icelandic nation is encouraged to look to more "futuristic" types of business than aluminium processing and to stop believing that they can't do anything for themselves.