This is a beautifully written book about an Icelandic sheep farmer who fights fiercely to maintain his independence, bring beholden to no one (including his own family!), despite everything that early 1900s Iceland throws at him and his sheep.
 
The prose was a little dense at times for my personal tastes, but I overall really enjoyed reading this. Laxness has a knack for capturing both the beautiful highs and tragic lows of ordinary farming life, but he also manages to give pointed commentary on Iceland's changing political and economic systems and its effects, good and bad, on characters of disparate economic classes.

If you have the edition with the Brad Leithauser introduction, I would not recommend reading the intro until you complete the book. It contained major spoilers.