Set in Reykjavik in the 1950s, with an irresistibly colourful family at the centre of the novel, 'Devil's Island' charts the immense changes that took place in Iceland when a simple rural culture of farmers and fishermen clashed with the American mass culture brought to the island by American troops.
The story revolves principally around two brothers, Baddi and Danni, brought up by their grandparents in the American barracks which were left empty after the Second World War. After a trip to Kansas, Baddi returns to 'devil's island' as an Elvis lookalike, with a new American accent and a large car, making him - for a while - something of a local hero . . .