IR Book Club Welcomes Back Eliza Reid
- Heather Goodman Lytwyn
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Our November 6th IR Book Club features Eliza Reid with her 1st mystery novel
By Heather Goodman Lytwyn
In June of 2022, for the launch of the Icelandic Roots Book Club, Eliza Reid was our first featured author. She had just published Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They are Changing the World. How fortunate we were that Eliza graciously agreed to make a webinar so that IR members from Iceland, Canada, and the United States could hear about her research and her celebration of Icelandic women who were making a difference.
On November 6th, we will welcome back the former First Lady to our IR Book Club to engage in a conversation with us about her first murder mystery: Death on the Island. The same book was also published in Britain under the title Death of a Diplomat. It is set on the Westman Islands, just off the south coast of Iceland, and readers will want to add visiting the islands to their bucket list. This is an engaging page-turner, so once you start reading it, do not plan on doing anything else for a few hours. Eliza’s exploration of the murder mystery genre is a reflection of her passion for reading and re-reading Agatha Christie novels, beginning at the age of eight. It also reflects how she came to appreciate the great work done by diplomats during the eight years her husband, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, was the President of Iceland.
In May of this year, Eliza spoke about Death on the Island at two readings and book signings in Manitoba: one hosted by H.P. Tergesen and Sons in Gimli, and one hosted by McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg. You can view the launch from McNally Robinson on YouTube. Still, it will be even more engaging if you join us for a conversation with the author at the Icelandic Roots Book Club on Thursday, November 6th, at 12:00 p.m. CST and 5:00 p.m. in Iceland.
The IR Book Club's next meeting is in January 2026, when we will be discussing Jón Kalman Stefánsson's latest novel, Your Absence is Darkness.