About

Sometimes it’s not a singular bad guy that you need to worry about… sometimes it’s a whole institution. Join authors Katrín Júlíusdóttir and Yun Ko-eun as they discuss the antagonists in their books: greed and corruption. In Júlíusdóttir’s debut, Dead Sweet (translated by Quentin Bates), a detective solving murder of a wealthy businessman ends up discovering a web of financial crime and secrets. Yun’s award-winning “dystopian feminist eco-thriller”, The Disaster Tourist (translated by Lizzie Buehler), follows an employee at a travel agency specializing dark tourism where she discovers that they might have something even darker up their sleeves. Júlíusdóttir and Yun lay out all the clues… and the clues lead all the way to the top.

Moderator: Roland Gulliver

This event is supported by WOW Culture Lab.

The Disaster Tourist

Welcome to the desert island of Mui, where a paid vacation to paradise is nothing short of a disaster in this “mordantly witty novel [that] reads like a highly literary, ultra–incisive thriller” (Refinery29). Jungle is a cutting–edge travel agency specializing in tourism to destinations devastated by disaster and climate change. And until she found herself at the mercy of a predatory colleague, Yona was one of their top representatives.

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Dead Sweet

A murder is just the beginning… When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn't until young police officer Sigurdís finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.

Read more about Dead Sweet

Katrín Júlíusdóttir

Katrín Júlíusdóttir is a former Icelandic politician, elected in 2003 and served as Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Minister of Finance and Economy and Social Democratic Alliance’s vice-chair until she retired from politics in 2016. Katrín won the Blackbird Award for best Icelandic crime debut for her first novel, Dead Sweet, hitting the bestseller lists shortly after publication.

Read more about Katrín Júlíusdóttir

Yun Ko-eun

Yun Ko-eun is the winner of the 2021 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation and was the first Asian writer to receive the award. Her prizewinning novel was praised as an ecothriller by English language media and received positive reviews throughout the US and UK.

Read more about Yun Ko-eun