The Old Man and His Sons by Heðin Brú. A short, deceptively simple novel about a poor old man and his son who try to pay off a debt by going whaling. First published in Faroese in 1940 and widely considered the best Faroese novel; it captures the rhythm of village life in the islands as it began to give way to the modern world.
The Tower at the Edge of the World by William Heinesen. The dean of Faroese literature in the 20th century, Heinesen wrote in Danish but lived all his life in Tórshavn. This is a fictionalised, vivid memoir of growing up in the small capital around the time of the First World War.
Barbara by Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen. The classic Faroese novel of love and longing, set in 18th-century Tórshavn. Jacobsen died young and left the book unfinished — but it was completed from his notes and remains the romance the Faroese have not yet escaped.
The Faroe Islands: Politics and Society by Beinta í Jákupsstovu and others. For travellers who want to understand how 50,000 people run their own country in the middle of the North Atlantic — the constitutional arrangements with Denmark, the fishing economy, the language revival.