Written at the height of his powers in 1968, Laxness brings the full range of his wit, humor, humanity and imagination to this wholly unclassifiable tale of a young emissary from the Bishop ("Embi") among the people of Snaeffels, a strange place indeed. This playful book, returned to print with an introduction by Susan Sontag, toys with Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, Norse mythology and Christian conventions. Laxness won the Nobel Prize in 1955.  (ICL24, $14.00)