The year 2012 is coming to an end. The Christmas celebration will come in only few days . The Institute of Gunnar Gunnarsson and Klausturkaffi Café wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year. We hope to see many of this year's visitors again and thank you for all your compliments and support.

Next Sunday, the 16th December, Ævar Kjartansson will read Gunnar Gunnarsson's novella The Good Shepherd (Advent) at the home of the writer Skriðuklaustur. The very same time the story will be read in Grenjaðarstaður in the NorthEast of Iceland. Both readings start at 14.00 and admission is free.

Last Sunday the story of Benedikt and his friends struggling in the mountains to save few sheeps and lambs for dying in the snow, was read in Reykjavik and Berlin. In Berlin 112 people showed up and enjoyed the reading of the German actor Matthias Scherwenikas.

Gunnar Gunnarsson's story about the shepherd Benedikt who struggles in the highlands for saving few sheeps in the weeks before Christmas, will be read in public in many places this year. Advent, or The Good Shepherd, as the story was called when it was published in hundreds of thousand copies in USA 1940, was first published by Reclam verlag in Germany 1936. It has become a classic and is now read as a Christmas story in the Icelandic Radio every December. In the last years it has also become tradition to read it in public for guests in few places in Iceland and also abroad.

This year the readings will take place two Sundays. On 9th December it will be read at 13.30 in Gunnarshouse in Reykjavik, in the home of the Icelandic Writer's Association. And the same day at 14.00 the German actor Matthias Scherwenikas will read it in the hall of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin.

On the 16h December Advent will be read in two more places. As usual it will be read at Gunnar's home in Skriðuklaustur. That reading will start at 14.00 just as the reading in Grenjaðarstaður in the Northeast of Iceland.

All these readings are free of charge and people are welcome as long as there is a space to fill.

Saturday 1st December 5 authors will come to Skriðuklaustur and read from their new books. Kristín Steinsdóttir with Bjarna-Dísa, Kristín Ómarsdóttir from Milla, Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir from Sagan um klaustrið á Skriðu, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl from Illska and Einar Már from Íslenskir kóngar. The book about the avelanche in Neskaupstaður 1974 will also be introduced. The event starts at 14.00 and entrance fee is 1.000 kr., coffee and cakes included. The books will be for sale so people can get autographs. The authors will also read at Vopnafjörður, Seyðisfjörður and Neskaupstaður this weekend, sponsored by the East Iceland Culture council and others.

Sunday 2nd December the annual Gryla festival will be at Skriðuklaustur. The storytelling elves and music elves will tell the audience about the old and dreadful troll Gryla and hopefully she will not show up with here husband this time. The event starts at 14.00 and is free. Afterwards guest can enjoy the christmas cake buffet at Klausturkaffi.

The famous Christmas buffet at Skriðuklaustur start this weekend. The first buffet will be on Saturday evening and it is not fully booked so if you feel tempted you can contact Elisabet ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). The Christmas buffet will then continue every Friday and Saturday evening until 15th December. And there are still some tables available. As usually guests will be welcomed with something warm and the buffet will be full of local food and delicious adventure from the Klausturkaffi kitchen.