Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir (b.1974) studied history in Reykjavik and Salamanca, journalism at Columbia University in New York, and previously worked in Copenhagen before moving back to Reykjavík, where she lives with her husband, children and stepchildren. Her bestselling debut The Island (2016) was nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize in 2017. When she isn’t writing, Sigríður works as a journalist and television news anchor. Björnsdóttir’s highly anticipated third novel, The Fires, was a bestseller and viral hit in Iceland. Her previous novel The Fortune of this World (2022) was an Icelandic bestseller..