Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Greenhouse

by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Brian FitzGibbon (Translator)

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 684 ratings · 147 reviews

Young Lobbi was preparing to leave his childhood home, his autistic brother, his octogenarian father, and the familiar landscape of mossy lava fields for an unknown future. Soon before his departure, he received an awful phone call: his mother was in a car accident. She used her dying words to offer calm advice to her son, urging him to continue their shared work in the gr...more

Paperback, 262 pages

Published October 11th 2011 by Amazon Publishing (first published 2007)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Het Achterhuis, Dagboekbrieven 12 juni 1942 - 1 augustus 1944 by Anne Frank

Home Or House In The Title

31st out of 168 books — 17 voters

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Bonds Between Fathers and Daughters

7th out of 44 books — 5 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,306)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 09, 2013 Bettie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book, winter-20122013, next, abandoned, iceland

Dedicated to my mother
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.” —Genesis 1:29

Opening: Because I’m leaving the country and it’s difficult to know when I’ll be back, my seventy-seven-year-old father is preparing a memorable last supper for me and is going to cook something from one of Mom’s handwritten recipes, the kind of thing Mom might have cooked on such an occasi...more

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 14, 2012 Larissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: icelandic, in-translation, for-review, 2011, 2012, re-reads

Re-read for new review, November 2012.

Reviewed for Iceland Review, December 10, 2012, here: http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandr...

***

Part road novel, part bildungsroman, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s The Greenhouse is a meditative story of love, death, fatherhood, and creating meaning in life even when it seems to be entirely dictated by chance. Published in English translation in 2011, it is the first of ten Icelandic novels that online retailer Amazon committed to publishing in the next year via...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 27, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a little obsessed with Iceland. It's a gorgeous country and produces some amazing literature - Bragi Olafsson's The Pets ranks among my favorite books of all time - so I was thrilled when I came across Au∂ur Ava Olafsdottir's The Greenhouse; it's not every day that an English translation of a contemporary Icelandic literary title comes my way.

This is a quiet novel, written in a crisp and direct style - in that way it reminds me of Murakami, though the comparison ends there. Lobbi is a young...more I'm a little obsessed with Iceland. It's a gorgeous country and produces some amazing literature - Bragi Olafsson's The Pets ranks among my favorite books of all time - so I was thrilled when I came across Au∂ur Ava Olafsdottir's The Greenhouse; it's not every day that an English translation of a contemporary Icelandic literary title comes my way.

This is a quiet novel, written in a crisp and direct style - in that way it reminds me of Murakami, though the comparison ends there. Lobbi is a young man in his early twenties struggling to come to terms with the recent death of his mother as well as the recent birth of his daughter - the latter the result of a one-night stand in the former's beloved greenhouse. He accepts a job tending a world famous rose garden overseas where he befriends a film buff priest. Over time, Lobbi cultivates a rich inner life alongside the ailing rose garden while occasionally phoning his seventy-seven-year-old father to help him decipher his late wife's recipes. When the mother of his child contacts him one day to ask if he'll watch their daughter Flora Sol for a month while she completes her thesis, Lobbi isn't sure he's ready for the responsibility, but he accepts anyway.

That's the basic premise of the book. What I found most fascinating about this book - aside from the sheer pleasure of Olafsdottir's prose - was the believability of Lobbi as a fully fleshed out man. It's notoriously difficult for an author to write outside their gender, but Olafsdottir really hit it out of the park here. I recognized so much of my early twenties in Lobbi. The particulars are unique to him as a character, but the emotional landscape of a young man coming to terms with life's twin crucible of grief and joy is universal. It's strange, in many ways The Greenhouse is a small book - the stakes are never particularly high, the movements are subtle, the most dramatic action occurs before the narrative moment - yet while reading it (and still after) I found it to be expansive in a compact way. I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's the type of book that consumes you while remaining a very contained thing, maybe like a bonsai or a scale model of a skyscraper.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Sep 26, 2011 Nathalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

J'ai adoré les deux premiers tiers de ce livre, alors que Arnljótur quitte l'Islande pour un genre de road trip vers l'âge adulte, plein de naiveté et d'authenticité. Le personnage est très attachant, drôle, souvent émouvant. J'ai beaucoup aimé sa vision du monde, et j'avais souvent envie de souligner certains extraits.

J'ai beaucoup aimé la dernière partie, mais pas aussi intensément. J'y ai trouvé certaines longueurs, et la fin a un petit coté légèrement Paulo Coelho. Mais je lui aurais donné...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2013 Sara Hlín rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Las hana á íslensku eftir að hafa nýlokið við að lesa Undantekningu sem kom út núna um sl. jól. Ég er hrifin af frásagnarstílnum hennar Auðar Övu en sama atriðið pirraði mig við Afleggjarann og við Undantekningu. Í báðum bókum eru börn sögupersónur og í báðum bókum virðist sem hún hafi ekki rannsakað nægilega vel hvað börn á vissum aldursskeiðum eru fær um að gera! Í Afleggjaranum er Lobbi með 9-10 mánaða gamalt barn sem getur gert hluti sem venjuleg börn á þessum aldri geta ekki. Barnið getur p...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 12, 2012 Mary Soderstrom rated it 5 of 5 stars

So glad to see that this book is now available in English. I read it 18 months ago in French translation (as Rosa Candida) and found it both fun and thoughtprovoking. Since then it's been featured in three of the book discussion groups I'm involved in either as a leader or a simple member, and it is on the reading list for the fall for my three English language groups.

The story is deceptively simple: a young man--something of a slacker--heads off from his island home to restore a rose garden th...more

like · see review

Apr 22, 2012 Pardesi rated it 3 of 5 stars

This short novel is told in a first person, stream of consciousness narrative. The narrator, Lobbi, is a young (22) Icelandic man who makes a long journey to tend the once famous rose garden of an isolated monastery that has fallen into disrepair. He leaves behind his 77 year old widowed father and autistic twin brother. Also left behind is a 4 month old daughter, born of a one night stand, that he has seen only once – the day she was born.

The voyage to the monastery is fairly uneventful, apart...more This short novel is told in a first person, stream of consciousness narrative. The narrator, Lobbi, is a young (22) Icelandic man who makes a long journey to tend the once famous rose garden of an isolated monastery that has fallen into disrepair. He leaves behind his 77 year old widowed father and autistic twin brother. Also left behind is a 4 month old daughter, born of a one night stand, that he has seen only once – the day she was born.

The voyage to the monastery is fairly uneventful, apart from coming down with appendicitis on the plane and undergoing emergency surgery upon landing. Along the way, Lobbi encounters a couple of young women eager to jump into his bed, a fact to which he is strangely equivocal. He settles in at the monastery, revitalizing the garden by day and spending evenings watching movies and drinking all varieties of alcohol with Father Thomas, who finds answers to all life's questions in his sizable library of old films.

The real story, however, begins when Anna, the mother of his daughter, arrives to drop off the baby for a few weeks. Anna decides to stay, and the rest of the book deals with the relationship that develops among Lobbi, Anna and their child.

There is a muted quality to the narrative that is inconsistent with what one would expect from a 22 year old male, even one who chooses to be a gardener. Where are the raging hormones, the aggression, the restlessness? Granted, not every young man is a bull in heat, but everything seems a little off. Is he on valium? Does he share a mild form of autism with his twin brother; a touch of asperger's perhaps? After all, this is stream of consciousness, we are inside Lobbi's head, and even mild mannered, nice young men have poorly behaved thoughts from time to time, if not a good deal more often.

About halfway through the book I became aware that the author, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, is a woman. This explains the vague inauthenticity of the narrative tone. It is not so much that the musings of Lobbi are not credible, but that so much is missing. I suspect that Olafsdottir was cognizant of the fact that there are vast regions of a young man's thoughts that were inaccessible to her, and she chose (probably wisely) not to go there.

One fact that is never revealed is the location of the monastery. We learn that Lobbi is from Iceland only a third of the way through. The only other reference to any place is Lobbi's speculation that some writing on a shirt worn by Anna is Finnish. There are a number of clues, but they don't add up. After the plane ride, Lobbi has a full day's drive to the monastery, through an enormous, old growth forest and across three borders. The monastery is in or near mountains, but also close enough to the sea to have a steady supply of fish and seafood. The inhabitants of the small village in which the monastery is located speak a rare dialect of some unnamed language, and yet there is a halfway decent selection of books published in the dialect available at the local bookstore. Given that Lobbi started off in Iceland, one thinks naturally of Finland or one of the Baltic states. This is impossible, however, because Lobbi tells his father that the days are the same length year round, which means close to the equator. There is also a reference to the warm or mild climate. It is, in short, an imaginary location.

Ultimately, the slight dissonance of the narrative does not detract at all from this eminently readable book. The plot is engaging and the writing is top notch (credit must also be given to the translator here). I found myself stealing time to get back to the story. I give it three stars. It deserves three and a half, and I am a tough grader.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Feb 20, 2012 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-edition

The Greenhouse is a surprisingly lovely little story, with as much left unsaid as said. A young man, someone who doesn't seem especially comfortable in his own skin, takes his love of gardening to a country new to him. And he has a daughter, conceived in a careless one-night, actually less than one night, stand. I couldn't help but cheer him on as he learns about love, relationships, being a father, all aided by a monk who has at least one film to recommend as answer to all of life's questions....more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 07, 2012 Victoria rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: family, lit-fic, translated-fiction

I feel like translated fiction can be awfully hit or miss - usually more of a result of the translation, than the original work. This translated novel I thought was smoothly written, and very interesting. I really enjoyed reading it, but it felt more like half a novel than a full novel because the ending was just lacking. Everything about it felt unfinished, other than the relationship between father and daughter. The ending did not satisfy me, and some of the more fantastic healing elements wer...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 22, 2011 Jim added it

Shelves: coming-of-age

There's a passage early on in Lord of the Rings where Frodo asks Sam, who has always wanted to meet Elves, what he thinks of them now that he's met them. Sam thinks for a moment and replies, "They're a bit above my likes and dislikes, if you know what I mean." That was pretty much how I felt when faced with the prospect of trying to settle on a star rating for The Greenhouse. I weighed everything from 2 up to 5, but none of them felt quite right for summing up this rewarding but flawed novel.

Th...more There's a passage early on in Lord of the Rings where Frodo asks Sam, who has always wanted to meet Elves, what he thinks of them now that he's met them. Sam thinks for a moment and replies, "They're a bit above my likes and dislikes, if you know what I mean." That was pretty much how I felt when faced with the prospect of trying to settle on a star rating for The Greenhouse. I weighed everything from 2 up to 5, but none of them felt quite right for summing up this rewarding but flawed novel.

The Greenhouse falls best into the category of the "young man coming of age" novel, and it's mainly a character study; the plot is pretty basic. Lobbi is 22 years old, getting ready to leave home and start a new job in another country. He also has a baby daughter he's only seen once, as a result of a one-night stand with a woman he barely knows. Shortly after starting his new job, both threads of his life come together when the mother contacts him asking if he can take the baby for a month while she finishes her graduate thesis. This isn't a book you read to find out what happens, you read it to find out how things happen, how this young man who is so insecure and uncertain about himself and his own life at the beginning of the book eventually begins to find himself and his place in the world through his work, his new friends, and his daughter.

What I liked most about this book was the character of Lobbi himself. As a 22 year old man myself once, leaving home behind and venturing out into the great unknown with a few talents, a modest amount of schooling, and a whole lot of questions and uncertainty (but no child, thankfully), I could immediately relate to him and the way he was thinking and feeling. There were times when he questioned his thoughts and feelings where I could look back as an older man, smile reminiscently and want to tell him, "You don't have to overthink things so much," but when you've never had the prospect of a permanent career before, never been in love before, never held a baby or changed a diaper before, all of it seems so much more complicated than what it really is.

I also want to say that I really, really loved the depiction of fatherhood in this novel. So many times in modern fiction, both books and movies, fathers are treated as deadbeats, philanderers, buffoons, abusives, or just part of the furniture, at best superfluous to the raising of the child, at worst a danger to the child's health and happiness. It is so wonderfully refreshing to read a novel where fatherhood is not only respected but celebrated as a positive and important bond in people's lives, one that profoundly affects both child and parent. It isn't just shown in the love that is evident between Lobbi and his baby daughter, but also the care and concern shown to Lobbi by his own father, an elderly widower with whom he speaks regularly on the telephone.

As far as the flaws go, they aren't many, but they are noticeable. Some reviewers here have expressed disappointment at the ending. Without hopefully spoiling anything, I can understand why they'd feel that way (and that was one of the flawed elements IMO that made this a tough book to rate), but I thought the resolution was at least appropriate in a "karmic circle" kind of way. My annoyance was more with a few details that the author left unclarified, but I don't think that particular thing was what upset the other reviewers. Another problem is that the English version uses this really weird punctuation where speech and thoughts are preceded by a hyphen, instead of being enclosed in quotation marks. It isn't generally a big deal, but it makes it very hard to tell sometimes when Lobbi is thinking something and when he's actually saying it aloud, because unless he clarifies, "This is what I said/this is what I thought," it all looks exactly the same.

The most noticeable flaw is structural. As I mentioned at the top, this is not a plot-driven book; there's pretty much no action in it at all, and what little tension it has is all dramatic. There's an appealing poetic quality to the writing (I wasn't surprised to learn afterward that the author is, in fact, also a poet), but it isn't something that's going to pull a reader right in from the first page and demand that they keep going. It's a life journey, and like real life journeys there are times when everything is happening and times when very little is happening. Unfortunately, one of those spaces of very little happening is very early in the novel and goes on for quite a while, and I can see a lot of readers getting discouraged and quitting before they get through it. Even Lobbi having a nasty bout of appendicitis can only do so much to pick things up. On the plus side, the chapters are very short, so it's an easy book to dip in and out of until you finally get back to a part where the story gets going again.

I think this would be a very good choice for book clubs; I would also recommend it to younger adult men if I thought they might have the patience to actually sit down and read it to the end. Its meditations on manhood and fatherhood gave me things to think about even at 33, and I probably would have gotten even more out of it at 22, when I still hadn't found some of my own answers to Lobbi's questions.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 06, 2013 Sheila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-prime

This book caught my eye for two main reasons. First, the title made me take my first look because I love all things gardening related. Then, the description of the book kept my attention because it described a story not only of the shared love of the title greenhouse between a son and his deceased mother, but it also told of the journey of the son to a remote monastery to restore its once fabulous gardens. Enough said...click...download...read...and I am glad to have done it.

I would describe thi...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 04, 2012 Barbarac rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sylvia

Shelves: around-the-world, nordic, europe

I just read another review that mentioned this book was quiet. Exactly. This book is quiet. Part of it takes place in a monastery, and that's how this book is, simple and quiet.
It's the story of a young man leaving his country for the first time and leaving his father and twin autistic brother behind. His mom died a few years back and the family still seems to not have moved on.
Part of the book is the road trip to his destination, which is never mentioned by name. Neither is his country of ori...more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2012 Renee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Following the death of his mother, whose beloved greenhouse was home to rare roses, 22-year-old Lobbi leaves his elderly father and autistic twin brother behind in his native Iceland to take a job restoring a medieval rose garden at a European monastery.

Once in Europe Lobbi reconnects with his 9 month old daughter; the product of a one night stand right after his mother's death. The Greenhouse reads as a very simple tale, but for those that are well versed in Christianity (I am not), I read ther...more

like · see review

Jan 23, 2012 Pamela Barrett rated it 5 of 5 stars

When 20 year old Arnljotor, or Lobbi as his father calls him, has a one night stand in his mother’s greenhouse, with a girl he barely knows, she gets pregnant. At the time, his life is unsettled; his mother has died, his elderly father wants him to pursue an advanced education degree, and his autistic brother is in an assisted living home. Lobbi loves working with plants and plans on traveling to a medieval monastery to help the monks bring their world renowned ancient garden back to its former...more

like · see review

Apr 21, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a short read, and I wasn't really sure what to expect when I first started. However, I loved the writing and I found the story beautiful in a "true to life" sort of way. Nothing terribly drastic or shocking happens, and the main character's story is by no means finished when the book ends. After reading so many birth-to-death sagas recently, I found this one refreshing. I loved the father/son relationship and I loved that rather than using her first name, the main character constantly r...more

like · see review

May 14, 2012 Melinda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Found this book during a Kindle sale for foreign literature. The writing meanders through the Icelandic countryside and the prose is both descriptive and profound. As the author comes into himself during the process of renewing the monastic garden, the weeding and pruning and reviving also becomes symbolic of his own life. As I was reading the main character's thought stream, I would ask myself whether he was going on too much - describing too much - thinking too much . . . but then I realized t...more

like · see review

Jun 27, 2012 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars

I took a break from reading Jane Eyre and quickly read The Greenhouse. The book was translated from Icelandic but the translation is so good, it is never a factor. I probably would have rated the book a 3.5 but I liked it more than didn't like it so I rounded up...

The reader follows a young twenty-something as he sets out from his homeland (Iceland) and heads for the "continent" (Europe) to restore a rose garden at an ancient monastery. His nickname is Lobbi (thank goodness because who knows ho...more

like · see review

Feb 28, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best thing about this book is that a 50-someodd year old woman has captured the voice of a 22 year old man. That, however, is the worst thing about this book as well.
I found his self-centered reflections a little annoying, but having been 22, there was some uncomfortable resonance with the thoughts the lead character shares, as well. I found this discomfort interesting to explore (some).
The main character has had some hardships, but for the length of the story, things seem to come pretty ea...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 10, 2013 Vitalba Crivello rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Delicato romanzo sulla crescita personale, Rosa Candida avvolge il lettore nella storia del protagonista, ventenne alle prese con il suo futuro. Tra ricorrenti ricordi ed immagini familiari, Lobbi affronta il viaggio che lo porta lontano dall'Islanda ma più vicino a se stesso.
Leit motiv del racconto, scritto interamente prima persona, é la presenza “intangibile” della piccola Flora Sol. Un evento inatteso porterà il protagonista non solo a riconoscere e ad accettare pienamente la paternità “cas...more

1 like · like · see review

May 25, 2012 Alesa rated it 4 of 5 stars

An absolute gem of a book. Consider all of these unique factors. An Icelandic author. A 22-year-old single father who wants to devote his life to restoring a medieval rose garden somewhere in southern Europe. An autistic brother. But these little facts do nothing to describe the magic of the story, which has a viewpoint character who bumbles through life but is totally nonjudgmental.

This book won a ton of literary awards in Europe, and for very good reason. There's nothing predictable in it. And...more

like · see review

Aug 31, 2012 Roberta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

E' consolante sapere che dal Nord Europa non arrivano solo gialli e thriller, ma anche romanzi 'normali', diciamo. Detto questo, sono molto contenta di aver speso 89 centesimi (per la versione ARC - in traduzione inglese - di Amazon) piuttosto che 17 euro (o 9,99 nel caso della versione digitale) per la traduzione italiana. The Greenhouse (Rosa candida in italiano): è un libro piacevole ma avevo altre aspettative.

Arnljótur Thórir (soprannominato dal padre, grazie al cielo, Lobbi) è un ventiduenn...more E' consolante sapere che dal Nord Europa non arrivano solo gialli e thriller, ma anche romanzi 'normali', diciamo. Detto questo, sono molto contenta di aver speso 89 centesimi (per la versione ARC - in traduzione inglese - di Amazon) piuttosto che 17 euro (o 9,99 nel caso della versione digitale) per la traduzione italiana. The Greenhouse (Rosa candida in italiano): è un libro piacevole ma avevo altre aspettative.

Arnljótur Thórir (soprannominato dal padre, grazie al cielo, Lobbi) è un ventiduenne islandese (non credo venga mai nominata l'Islanda, ma i campi di lava, la ricetta della zuppa di cacao e altri particolari, nonché la nazionalità della scrittrice, puntano in questa direzione) che all'inizio del libro pranza con il padre settantasettenne e il fratello gemello autistico prima di partire per una destinazione mai specificata (ma che probabilmente è in Italia, visto che si fa riferimento a Sant'Antonio di Padova e all'Amaretto) per lavorare nel famoso giardino (roseto, per la maggior parte) di un monastero.

Lobbi partendo si lascia alle spalle non solo una potenziale carriera accademica che non lo interessa, ma anche il lutto per la morte della madre, avvenuta un paio di anni prima per incidente, e la figlioletta di pochi mesi, Flóra Sól, frutto di una mezzora sconsiderata insieme alla giovane Anna, amica di un amico. La madre di Lobbi ha lasciato un grande vuoto, ma è anche molto presente nella vita familiare: Lobbi pensa molto a lei, e "everytime Dad needs to add weight to his words, he summons mom from the grave to get her opinion" (ogni volta che papà ha bisogno di dare più importanza a quello che dice, richiama mamma dalla tomba per avere la sua opinione). Il padre inoltre dona a Lobbi piccoli segni della presenza della madre: prima di partire gli consegna l'ultimo barattolo di marmellata che aveva preparato, poi gli spedisce il suo libro di ricette e infine un maglione che aveva lavorato lei. Chi non ha una grande presenza nella vita di Lobbi è Anna, e con lei la figlia Flóra Sól. Lobbi sembra convinto che una breve imprudenza non possa influire più di tanto sulla sua vita, e così mantiene solo sporadici contatti con la figlia, e non cerca in nessun modo di trasformare l'incontro di una notte con Anna in qualcosa di più significativo.

Durante il suo viaggio verso il monastero (prima in aereo, poi in macchina seguendo la poco battuta pilgrim's way - la via dei pellegrini) Lobbi si pone molti interrogativi, sulla sua esistenza (che sembra sempre fragile e poco significativa nei suoi pensieri, sempre confrontata con quella di un'intera umanità, in confronto alla quale perde importanza) sui sui rapporti con le donne (nei quali non si è mai voluto impegnare, rifiutandosi di dormire per più di una volta con la stessa donna per evitare impegni) e sui suoi progetti per il futuro (che, fondamentalmente, si rifiuta di fare, nonostante le numerose sollecitazioni del padre). Forse il viaggio verso il monastero è un modo di evitare il confronto con la sua vita, che però alla lunga fallisce. L'obiettivo di Lobbi è quello di trapiantare nel roseto alcune talee dalle piante di rosa candida che la madre era riuscita a far prosperare nella sua serra. Il legame più forte tra Lobbi e la madre era proprio questo interesse profondo per il giardinaggio.

The Greenhouse è un libro interessante per le ambientazioni particolari, ma in definitiva mi ha deluso. Il protagonista Lobbi (sul cui flusso di coscienza ho qualche dubbio, ma non essendo donna non mi posso più di tanto esporre) prende un'unica decisione (quella di partire per il monastero) e per il resto per tutto il viaggio si limita a prendere atto di quanto il destino gli propone man mano. (view spoiler) Anche il suo rapporto con gli altri personaggi (per quanto, a volte, appena conosciuti) sembra seguire la stessa falsa riga. Anche se tecnicamente questo è un romanzo di formazione, non mi sembra che ci sia un cambiamento in Lobbi: certo, impara ad amare la figlia e ad occuparsi di lei, ma in realtà sostanzialmente il suo carattere rimane estremamente passivo. Inoltre non ho ben capito il senso di tutta una serie di particolari (allegorici, immagino, ma di cosa?) su Flóra Sól: la bambina viene descritta identica a un Gesù ritratto in una chiesa, sembra che guarisca le persone, e che tutti nel paese la ritengano una taumaturga, e sicuramente Flóra Sól ha dei comportamenti ben inconsueti per una bambina di neppure un anno, eppure la cosa cade nel nulla, apparentemente.

Nel complesso un romanzo piacevole, interessante, anche ambizioso nelle intenzioni, ma che non riesce a realizzare le premesse in modo soddisfacente.

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...(less)

like · see review

Dec 10, 2012 Jann rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a gorgeous story to me. The protagonist goes from the harsh terrain and climate of his native Iceland to an unnamed country where everything planted in the ground grows without effort---and as his life takes unforeseen turns over a brief season, we watch his unfolding from a self-centered adolescent to a self-sacrificing parent. It was, however, in that "greenhouse" in Iceland that he learned how to love and nurture, by the example of his own parents. He takes a cherished rose cutting w...more

like · see review

Dec 21, 2012 Blue Willow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Questo libro racconta, in modo molto tenero (a volte al limite estremo del confine con il mieloso) di quanto un genitore possa perdutamente innamorarsi della prole, e trovare segni e corrispondenze quasi divine, in ogni più piccolo gesto di una propria creatura.
Il giovane Lobbi, fuggito dall'Islanda per realizzare il sogno di diventare un giardiniere, finirà per trovare inevitabile coltivare, oltre alle rose, anche l'amore per la figlia Flora Sol.
Un libro che ho trovato speciale soprattutto per...more

like · see review

Jun 14, 2012 Susie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ce livre m'avait été présenté comme étant l'histoire d'une homme qui travaillait comme jardinier dans un monastère. Dans mon fort intérieur, je m'attendais à ce que ça soit un beau livre, quoique peut-être un peu lent. Il faut d'abord spécifier que l'homme a juste 22 ou 23 ans, et qu'il prend la moitié du livre à arriver au village où se trouve le monastère, et que même une fois au village, nous lisons très peu sur son travail dans la roseraie. Le livre traite plutôt des pensées et sentiments de...more

like · see review

May 07, 2012 Lucas rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Nov 14, 2011 Zacherly Sheets rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a book that I won back in October and I am only now getting on here to put up the review from when I finished the book.

I will say that I did find the story touching and involving but I also must say that I didn't finish with a fulfilled feeling. It is really hard to describe, but there seems to be something missing although I can't totally tell you what I felt like it needed to give me that complete feeling I would have liked to have had. I will say that I did enjoy the book and it rea...more

like · see review

May 12, 2012 Phoebe rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an odd but interesting novel from Iceland that won a number of prizes in Europe. It's a coming-of-age story of a 22 year old boy (he's very boyish, not quite a man yet) who travels from what appears (at least to me, accustomed to lush New England) a rather bleak and barren village in the lava fields of Iceland to an ancient monastary to attend to their once-famous rose garden. It's sweet but not cloying. And interesting to hear of the more and customs of another place. It's set in contem...more

like · see review

May 09, 2012 Friggasmuse rated it 4 of 5 stars

I borrowed it on a whim from the library and haven't put it down since.
------
This book could almost be classified as fantasy as some of the characters and situations are to marvelous to believe. Initially, the narrative set itself up as a story about a young man coming to terms with his mother's surprising early death, however it is really about his journey into manhood.

As fairy tale as it can be, I couldn't put it down and often thought of the characters throughout the day. I particularly enjoy...more

like · see review

Aug 05, 2012 Monique rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: f-coming-of-age

Just love this novel!!! It is very entertaining and beautifully written. The author takes you on a journey as if you are there yourself! I cannot commend on the translation because I cannot read Icelandic, so nothing to compare here. But for me, the text was fluently written (you usually notice a bad translation!). I love the fact that a woman wrote from a male perspective, that is so brilliant if you pull that off, and she did!! A little note: the backcover had a few descriptions different to t...more

like · see review

Apr 22, 2012 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

I believe, if I understand correctly from another reader's review, that this title is an Amazon Crossing publication, which is a program of Amazon to translate and make available stories written in other languages. I purchased it as a kindle "deal-of-the-day."

The Greenhouse is a quiet, gentle story of a young man's coming of age; well written, it was a pleasure to read: short, in many brief chapters, I read it in two sittings.

The character is a young man, the author is a woman. I was aware of th...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 43 44 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (22)

More editions...

Genres

European Literature > Scandinavian Literature

4 users

Contemporary

3 users

Young Adult > Coming Of Age

3 users

Academic > School

2 users

Roman

2 users

Book Club

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Books by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Greenhouse

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Greenhouse

“Can a person who has been brought up in the heart of a thick dark forest, where one has to beat a path through multiple layers of trees just to take a letter to the post office, have any conception of what it’s like to spend one’s entire childhood waiting for a single tree to grow?” — 6 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Greenhouse
avg rating	preview: The Greenhouse Goodreads rating: 3.64 (684 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11208846-the-greenhouse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347419374l/11208846.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11208846-the-greenhouse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Greenhouse by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir[/url]

The Greenhouse

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website