The Girl Who Died, Ragnar Jonasson
The Girl Who Died, Ragnar Jonasson
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The Girl Who Died
A Thriller

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

Narrator: Amanda Redman

Unabridged: 6 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/04/2021


Synopsis

From Ragnar Jónasson, the award-winning author of the international bestselling Ari Thór series, The Girl Who Died is a standalone thriller about a young woman seeking a new start in a secluded village where a small community is desperate to protect its secrets.

Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn’t just one of Iceland’s most isolated villages, it is home to just ten people. Una’s only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm’s length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space—the site of a local legendary haunting—drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

"Is this the best crime writer in the world today? If you're looking for a mystery to get lost in during lockdown..." —The Times, UK

"A world-class crime writer...One of the most astonishing plots of modern crime fiction" —Sunday Times, UK

"It is nothing less than a landmark in modern crime fiction." —The Times, UK

About Ragnar Jónasson

RAGNAR JÓNASSON is an international number one award-winning and bestselling author who has sold over four million books in thirty-six territories worldwide. He is the only Icelandic author to have entered the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Jónasson was born in Reykjavik, where he also teaches copyright law at Reyk­javík University. He has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV news reporter, and, since the age of seventeen, has translated fourteen of Agatha Christie’s novels into Icelandic. He is the co-founder of the Reykjavík internation­al crime writing festival Iceland Noir. His critically ac­claimed international bestseller The Darkness is soon to be a major CBS Studios TV series, starring Lena Olin as Hulda, directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Ragnar's novel, Outside, is in development as a feature film by Ridley Scott's production company.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on December 23, 2023

Una is a school teacher in her 30's debating what she should do with her life. Scraping by day to day, she sees an advert for "a teacher at the end of the world" when she decides that she has nothing to lose and an adventure to gain so she sets off on her new post. The end of the world is a small co......more

Goodreads review by Jayme on February 28, 2021

Translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb, Icelandic Noir by Ragnar Jonasson. TEACHER WANTED AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD The honesty of the advertisement was appealing to Una, who was looking for a change of scenery. And, the contact was for just one year. Two girls, aged 7 and 9, in a coastal fishing......more

Goodreads review by Tonya on March 05, 2022

The Girl Who Died is an Icelandic Noir full of suspense and an ever present feeling of eminent danger. Una answers an advertisement for a teacher wanted at the edge of the world. Hoping to escape her mundane existence, she accepts the job and enters a world of isolation, secrets and mystery. Una is......more

Goodreads review by Javier on April 05, 2021

Review published in: [URL not allowed] 4,5 ⭐️ "Teacher wanted at the edge of the world" What an appealing advertisement, right? It is for Una who, unhappy with her life in Reykjavík decides to take the position as teacher of the two only kids in the village (with a population of......more