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Product Description
Product Description
With some 66 hits under his belt, Tomislav Bokšić, or Toxic, has a flawless record as hitman for the Croatian mafia in New York. That is, until he kills the wrong guy and is forced to flee the States, leaving behind the life he knows and loves. Suddenly, he finds himself on a plane hurtling toward Reykjavik, Iceland, disguised as an American televangelist named Father Friendly. With no means of escape from this island devoid of gun shops, this island with absolutely no tradition for contract killing, he is forced to come to terms with his bloody past and reevaluate his future, to tragicomic effect. The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning is a story of mistaken identity, human destiny, and the forces of good and evil present within us all.
About the Author
Hallgrimur Helgason was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1959. He started out as an artist, showing his work in several galleries of both New York and Paris, where he lived in the late eighties and early nineties. He made his debut as a novelist in 1990 and gained international attention with his third novel, 101 Reykjavik (“Imagine if Henry Miller had written Tropic of Cancer on crack instead of wine.”-Tim Sandlin), which was made into a film starring Victoria Abril. In 2001 Helgason received the Icelandic Literary Prize for The Author of Iceland. He has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, with 101 Reykjavik in 1999, and Stormland in 2007. A film based on the latter was released in early 2011. The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning is his only novel written in English. It was published in Iceland in 2008, in the author’s own translation, and became a bestseller in Germany in 2010. A father of three, Hallgrimur divides his time between Reykjavik and Hrísey Island.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
New York Croatian Mafia hitman "Toxic" (Tomislav Boksic) kills an FBI man in error and flees, ending up in Iceland having changed places en route with an American televangelist - who, unfortunately, he has to kill - on his way there to support a fringe Icelandic religious group. Hallgrimur Helgason wrote this novel in English before translating it into his native Icelandic, but it has only now, thanks to AmazonCrossing, found an English-language publisher. It is the second of - according to the Icelandic press - 12 Icelandic novels to be published in English by AmazonCrossing; I enjoyed the quite different first one ("The Greenhouse" by Aušur Ava Ólafsdóttir) and if they're all as good as these first two they'll be well worth watching out for.
Once in Iceland, Toxic has to pretend he is Father Friendly to maintain his cover, his quick wit saving him hilariously from all sorts of misadventures as he tries to keep in character. It turns out the religious types are not always so holy after all, and Toxic makes a half-decent televangelist when he puts his mind to it. His cover is soon blown, but his religious friends, instead of turning him in, hide him in exchange for his agreement to undergo a strict regime aimed at making him a new man and purging him of his sins. As the book the progresses, the jokes become less knockabout, and the tone becomes more serious as we discover that Toxic's problems stem from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when he lost his family and fiancée; you begin to feel sympathy for him despite the way his life turned out, and root for him as he tries to turn himself into a (fairly) respectable member of Icelandic society,with a (sort of) nice girlfriend who's keen to marry him - knowing all along that, in today's world, "they all lived happily ever after" is no more than a pipedream.
This is certainly a dream of a book, best described perhaps as a dark comedy: it's certainly NOT a thriller so steer clear if that's what you want. Helgason constantly subverts your expectations so that while you expect him to vilify everything and everybody in the novel, in fact he has great sympathy for most of his characters, faced with the rotten world they have to inhabit. Helgason's English is delightful, very readable but at the same time quirky, often using English very funnily in a way a native English speaker probably wouldn't.
A very funny, and ultimately very thought-provoking book that can be wholeheartedly recommended.
Once in Iceland, Toxic has to pretend he is Father Friendly to maintain his cover, his quick wit saving him hilariously from all sorts of misadventures as he tries to keep in character. It turns out the religious types are not always so holy after all, and Toxic makes a half-decent televangelist when he puts his mind to it. His cover is soon blown, but his religious friends, instead of turning him in, hide him in exchange for his agreement to undergo a strict regime aimed at making him a new man and purging him of his sins. As the book the progresses, the jokes become less knockabout, and the tone becomes more serious as we discover that Toxic's problems stem from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when he lost his family and fiancée; you begin to feel sympathy for him despite the way his life turned out, and root for him as he tries to turn himself into a (fairly) respectable member of Icelandic society,with a (sort of) nice girlfriend who's keen to marry him - knowing all along that, in today's world, "they all lived happily ever after" is no more than a pipedream.
This is certainly a dream of a book, best described perhaps as a dark comedy: it's certainly NOT a thriller so steer clear if that's what you want. Helgason constantly subverts your expectations so that while you expect him to vilify everything and everybody in the novel, in fact he has great sympathy for most of his characters, faced with the rotten world they have to inhabit. Helgason's English is delightful, very readable but at the same time quirky, often using English very funnily in a way a native English speaker probably wouldn't.
A very funny, and ultimately very thought-provoking book that can be wholeheartedly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Hallgrimur Helgason is an Iclandic writer and this book was originally in that language. He's tranlslated it into English himself, and very well.
Our antihero, Tomislav, is a Croatian, scarred by the wars in the Balkans. He goes to America where he becomes a hitman for the mafia. He's given a contract, only to find the deceased was a member of the FBI! Tomislav has to run, and run fast. Stealing a priest's identity (by killing him) he ends up in Iceland. Eventually his past catches up with him and he's on the run again.
This is a quirky tale, but none the worse for that. I found myself reluctant to put it down. Although Tomislay is a stone killer it's hard not to warm to him and care about what happens.
I recommend it.
Our antihero, Tomislav, is a Croatian, scarred by the wars in the Balkans. He goes to America where he becomes a hitman for the mafia. He's given a contract, only to find the deceased was a member of the FBI! Tomislav has to run, and run fast. Stealing a priest's identity (by killing him) he ends up in Iceland. Eventually his past catches up with him and he's on the run again.
This is a quirky tale, but none the worse for that. I found myself reluctant to put it down. Although Tomislay is a stone killer it's hard not to warm to him and care about what happens.
I recommend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I wanted to like this book having bought it on the strength of a preview of a couple of chapters and to be sure, it was littered with clever little plays on words which were mostly humorous. My problem lies with the story arc which just went nowhere...very slowly. Hitman hides out in iceland and gets to know the country and a few of its people. And that's pretty much it. The anti-hero is as sociopathic as you'd expect and his back story is interesting if a little uninvolving. Ergo, I came to the end of this story thinking "so what?" and coming to the conclusion that it wasn't a good book. OK, but not good.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This Hitman Misses the Mark
This is the story of Tomislav "Toxic" Boksic, a New York resident Croatian hitman who, after hit #66 goes badly wrong, is forced to flee the US with little more than his... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Man Raised By Penguins
Intermittently Good but Ultimately Disappointing
This book doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be. Pitched, I think, as a thriller, it doesn't really work as such because there isn't a great deal of edge-of-the-seat... Read more
Published 12 days ago by I. Bullen
A hit man ends up in Iceland
I was hoping this would be amusing, if it is I missed the joke.
A hit man finds life in New York gets too hot for him, so is sent back to Europe for things to cool. Read more
A hit man finds life in New York gets too hot for him, so is sent back to Europe for things to cool. Read more
Published 12 days ago by JoMaynard
Three jokes/page on average
If you liked 'Reykjavik 101' from the same author, you'll definitely love this novel (and vice versa). Read more
Published 16 days ago by Windmill2011
It's a hit with me
At first glance The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning appears to be a comedy thriller, but as the story unwinds it becomes increasingly dark and deep. Read more
Published 1 month ago by kevin, Weymouth
ICEMAN GOES TO ICELAND
This is an interesting foray into the actions of a Croatian contract killer who finds himself having to make an emergency exit from the USA and he ends up in Iceland posing as an... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. William Oxley
Fast moving, anarchic, capitivating
Although I would imagine it's not everybody's cup of tea, I loved this book.
Toxic is a Croatian hit man based in New York, who through a bit of mess up at the airport... Read more
Toxic is a Croatian hit man based in New York, who through a bit of mess up at the airport... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Zip Domingo
exciting reading
The plot was well written. The storyline moved at a fast pace. Plenty of thrills along with wit, and feelings.Recommended reading for lovers of both humour and thrills
Published 1 month ago by freddyj
Solid if uninspiring
Maybe because I actually know a Croatian who sounds and looks like a Bond super-villain, I found it all a little bit tame. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Russell G. Pottinger
Deeply average
This book never really got into any stride and was not anything like as good as I expected from the promos.The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning
Published 2 months ago by Bill
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