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Il viaggio di ritorno
Disa è una donna realizzata, una cuoca famosa che gestisce un hotel nella campagna inglese con il marito aristocratico. Una donna che ha tutte le ragioni per essere felice. Eppure è tormentata dalle ombre del passato, costretta a soffocare le proprie emozioni. Disa decide allora di tornare nella nativa Islanda, dove in vent'anni non ha mai fatto ritorno. Ha così inizio un viaggio nella memoria, in cui si svelano a poco a poco le vicende di una vita a tratti drammatica.
302 pages
First published January 1, 1999
47 people are currently reading
598 people want to read
About the author
Olaf Olafsson
28 books323 followersOlaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1962. He studied physics as a Wien Scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of three previous novels, The Journey Home, Absolution and Walking Into the Night, and a story collection, Valentines. His books have been published to critical acclaim in more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of the O. Henry Award and the Icelandic Literary Award, was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize, and has twice been nominated for the IMPAC Award. He is the Executive Vice President of Time Warner and he lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
March 4, 2019
Nope, can't do it. This is just too dreary and rambling for me right now.
DNF around page 56.
DNF around page 56.
February 28, 2012
This is not a gut wrenching, page turner. This is not a fast paced emotional story.
This is a poetic, marvelous tale of Disa who recently received word that she has a year to live thus prompting her to travel back home to Iceland.
Living in the English countryside, managing a lovely bed and breakfast, Disa is content with her life. The author paints a calm, aesthetic portrait of flowers and rolling hills, of food prepared well, of clean, quiet restful rooms and a tranquil lifestyle.
Leaving her well-defined comfortable environment, traveling by ship affords Disa time to reflect on her life as she slowly approaches her destination.
Her memories flicker and, even though some events experienced were painful, we observe her life as through a panoply of color where patterns change and shift and the kaledscope turns prismatic with each tiny nudge.
We are taken back to WWII and Nazi occupation of Europe, of Disa's Jewish lover, of her mother's disapproval of her career and choice of partner, of friendships made and friendship lost, of events out of her control and then, of choices intentionally made.
Highly recommended.
This is a poetic, marvelous tale of Disa who recently received word that she has a year to live thus prompting her to travel back home to Iceland.
Living in the English countryside, managing a lovely bed and breakfast, Disa is content with her life. The author paints a calm, aesthetic portrait of flowers and rolling hills, of food prepared well, of clean, quiet restful rooms and a tranquil lifestyle.
Leaving her well-defined comfortable environment, traveling by ship affords Disa time to reflect on her life as she slowly approaches her destination.
Her memories flicker and, even though some events experienced were painful, we observe her life as through a panoply of color where patterns change and shift and the kaledscope turns prismatic with each tiny nudge.
We are taken back to WWII and Nazi occupation of Europe, of Disa's Jewish lover, of her mother's disapproval of her career and choice of partner, of friendships made and friendship lost, of events out of her control and then, of choices intentionally made.
Highly recommended.
December 12, 2011
Can't decide if this is a 3star or 4star book. I didn't like the beginning of it. It has very short chapters and the time scale is rather hard to follow. It seemed the protagonist woke up three times in three different places apparently without connection. Eventually it began to flow better and turned into a quite sweet and touching story of a woman coming to terms with loss and grief from her past as she is faced with an implied - although not fully mentioned or described - terminal illness. It took me a LONG time to work out that the story was set in the 1960s - in fact I had to read the dust-cover for that info! So it was a bit choppy a bit confusing, but all in all I quite liked the story, but I never warmed to the female character who narrates the book - Disa. She is direct to the point of rudeness and a rather selfish person too. Although it can be said that other people are the best mirror (blush).
I found this book in a thrift shop last week - an unusual find in rural west country England as this is by an Icelandic writer. In the book Disa keeps mentioning a mirror with a blue painted frame decorated with white flowers. Guess what was in the same thrift shop today? I kid you not, there was a mirror with a blue painted frame and (obviously hand-painted) white flowers. I left it in the shop - that's too spooky for words!
I found this book in a thrift shop last week - an unusual find in rural west country England as this is by an Icelandic writer. In the book Disa keeps mentioning a mirror with a blue painted frame decorated with white flowers. Guess what was in the same thrift shop today? I kid you not, there was a mirror with a blue painted frame and (obviously hand-painted) white flowers. I left it in the shop - that's too spooky for words!
October 11, 2008
Lyrical and magical. Olafsson captures the mood and personality of the frozen tundra of Iceland. A story of a dying woman's trek back to her homeland. More inspirational then sad. I loved it.
May 31, 2012
I can appreciate a leisurely pace in storytelling, but this was a little too slow for me. I felt for the main character, but ultimately did not like her, so that dampened the book for me, too. I do applaud the author's ability to deftly weave the past and the present together in the narrative.
October 25, 2022
Nostalgična melanholija ove knjige dobija novi prizvuk kada se u toku čitanja u pozadini čuje Ludovico Einaudi i njegova magična kompozicija “Oltremare”. Dirljiv i nežan roman koji je igrom slučaja došao u moje ruke, što ga na neki način u mojim očima čini još dražim.
January 23, 2008
I know that people say that Proust wrote best about the nature of memory, but not being able to confirm or deny this yet (working on it), I'm going to go ahead and say that the Icelanders have my vote on this count so far. Much in the same fashion that Angels of the Universe broke memories into small, discreet episodes which were relayed in a more elliptical than linear fashion, The Journey Home finds its protagonist collaging together a series remembrances as she travels home to Iceland for the first time in 20 years.
While the narrative occasionally verges on the sentimental--which considering some of the subject matter (lovers sent to concentration camps, surprise pregnancies, familial estrangement) seems reasonable--over all, it is a rather moving story of a life lived under unusual and difficult circumstances. The prose is fluid, the characters well developed, and through successful allusions, the reader has a real sense of the world which exists outside of the confines of the story itself.
As an extra bonus, as the main character is an accomplished chef, there's also a great deal of decadent 'food-writing' throughout. Omelettes and salmon on a picnic, smoked lamb and ptarmigan at a 'Christmas' celebration in the middle of June, glazed duck, lobster bisque...even when the food doesn't technically sound appetizing (escargot in honey?), it still makes you hungry.
While the narrative occasionally verges on the sentimental--which considering some of the subject matter (lovers sent to concentration camps, surprise pregnancies, familial estrangement) seems reasonable--over all, it is a rather moving story of a life lived under unusual and difficult circumstances. The prose is fluid, the characters well developed, and through successful allusions, the reader has a real sense of the world which exists outside of the confines of the story itself.
As an extra bonus, as the main character is an accomplished chef, there's also a great deal of decadent 'food-writing' throughout. Omelettes and salmon on a picnic, smoked lamb and ptarmigan at a 'Christmas' celebration in the middle of June, glazed duck, lobster bisque...even when the food doesn't technically sound appetizing (escargot in honey?), it still makes you hungry.
March 19, 2011
Disa and her gay friend Anthony have kept an inn in England for years. Given 18 months to live, Disa decides to travel back to her home in Iceland one last time. Her trip is told with flashbacks to her life interspersed, sometimes making it hard to be sure what is happening when. We learn that she was engaged to a Jewish man who lost his life when he went back to Germany to try to get his parents out. But until the very end of the book, we don’t learn the real reason for her journey. The book has a satisfying ending. I was impressed that a man could write a novel that is so strongly from a woman’s viewpoint.
August 6, 2023
I'm a fan of this author and I enjoyed the book, although not quite as much as the last book I read by him titled Walking Into The Night. However I love his style of writing, much like prose, simple but evocative, sparse but deep.
I'm drawn to the Nordick countries and the plot of this book has Disa currently residing in the English countryside, but leaves it behind for a trip to her native Iceland. We are not sure why she is going back exactly and on the way her memories and experiences come to light, That of her hard relationship with her mother, the boyfriend who left after the war and was never seen again, her tense relationship with her sister.
She gains a job of a cook with a wealthy family while she is in Iceland. They have their own complications but as she spends her time there, and throughout the entire book, both present and past, she finds meaning and wonder in so many luminous things.
At the end it is revealed why she has gone there and that in itself is quite powerful. I'm glad I read this book.
I'm drawn to the Nordick countries and the plot of this book has Disa currently residing in the English countryside, but leaves it behind for a trip to her native Iceland. We are not sure why she is going back exactly and on the way her memories and experiences come to light, That of her hard relationship with her mother, the boyfriend who left after the war and was never seen again, her tense relationship with her sister.
She gains a job of a cook with a wealthy family while she is in Iceland. They have their own complications but as she spends her time there, and throughout the entire book, both present and past, she finds meaning and wonder in so many luminous things.
At the end it is revealed why she has gone there and that in itself is quite powerful. I'm glad I read this book.
March 5, 2018
A beautifully written book and well-told story with many interesting threads.
November 11, 2025
Poetic, thought-provoking, and comforting. A tragedy handed to the reader in a beautiful apple pie.
Thank you Luke
Thank you Luke
January 27, 2018
writing is beautiful and evocative...the ending gives coherence to a story that otherwise might seem a little too episodic, but doesn't actually explain much of anything.
April 5, 2013
Like Halldor Laxness's Atom Station, this book revolves around a lot of the fallout from World War II as it involved Iceland; only here the focus is even more personal. The narrator is a woman on her way home--though not for the first time. It's a testament to Olafsson's skill that he was able to weave several plotlines involving the same characters but in different eras together so seamlessly.
I say "seamlessly," but the book was definitely easier to read in long sittings than it was to read in shorter ones. Because each section might pick up in a different time period, and because various plots involve journeys back to Iceland, I did have difficulty sometimes, when I had been away from the book for a day or so, figuring out what was going on, where I was, which plotline I was following.
In standard order, the plot goes something like this: the narrator is an Icelandic woman whose parents want her to get a good business education. Instead, she takes up cooking as a side job and falls in love with it. This leads her eventually to, against her parents wishes, move to Britain, where she learns more about being a chef and has a job. There, she falls for a young Jewish man whose parents still reside in Germany during the lead-up to World War II. The letters from his mom become more ominous (that is, vaguer), so he returns to Germany to check in on them--and, of course, never returns.
Meanwhile, the narrator's parents (especially her mom) are having conniptions about her living with a man out-of-wedlock. When she more or less knows that her beau Jakob is not coming back, she packs up to return to Iceland for a visit. There, she gets a job as a private chef for a housebound woman and her family. There also, that family's son returns from Germany and, one night, essentially rapes the narrator. She becomes pregnant, and she returns to her family (by now her mother is recently dead), and her dad takes care of her and gets a family to adopt the baby the narrator will have. Meanwhile, a friend back in England, Anthony, has some ideas about turning his family inheritance--a big, old house--into a bed and breakfast and persuades the narrator to move back to be the cook and half-proprietor. They live together there for decades, serving others, until the baby that she had is graduating from school, which necessitates a visit to Iceland to see him as an adult, though she's not known him since his adoptive parents came into his life.
Told in straightforward fashion, the tale, I see here, is not as engaging as it is in its weaving of multiple time periods. What's also missing is this summary is Olafsson's pretty firm handle on the central character. Oddly, she's not someone I particularly liked. She seems very sure of herself, very stubborn, and very snobbish; others around her make all kind of mistakes, but she is always in the right. She reminded me a bit of Olive Kitteridge, though perhaps not quite as annoying or as interesting.
I say "seamlessly," but the book was definitely easier to read in long sittings than it was to read in shorter ones. Because each section might pick up in a different time period, and because various plots involve journeys back to Iceland, I did have difficulty sometimes, when I had been away from the book for a day or so, figuring out what was going on, where I was, which plotline I was following.
In standard order, the plot goes something like this: the narrator is an Icelandic woman whose parents want her to get a good business education. Instead, she takes up cooking as a side job and falls in love with it. This leads her eventually to, against her parents wishes, move to Britain, where she learns more about being a chef and has a job. There, she falls for a young Jewish man whose parents still reside in Germany during the lead-up to World War II. The letters from his mom become more ominous (that is, vaguer), so he returns to Germany to check in on them--and, of course, never returns.
Meanwhile, the narrator's parents (especially her mom) are having conniptions about her living with a man out-of-wedlock. When she more or less knows that her beau Jakob is not coming back, she packs up to return to Iceland for a visit. There, she gets a job as a private chef for a housebound woman and her family. There also, that family's son returns from Germany and, one night, essentially rapes the narrator. She becomes pregnant, and she returns to her family (by now her mother is recently dead), and her dad takes care of her and gets a family to adopt the baby the narrator will have. Meanwhile, a friend back in England, Anthony, has some ideas about turning his family inheritance--a big, old house--into a bed and breakfast and persuades the narrator to move back to be the cook and half-proprietor. They live together there for decades, serving others, until the baby that she had is graduating from school, which necessitates a visit to Iceland to see him as an adult, though she's not known him since his adoptive parents came into his life.
Told in straightforward fashion, the tale, I see here, is not as engaging as it is in its weaving of multiple time periods. What's also missing is this summary is Olafsson's pretty firm handle on the central character. Oddly, she's not someone I particularly liked. She seems very sure of herself, very stubborn, and very snobbish; others around her make all kind of mistakes, but she is always in the right. She reminded me a bit of Olive Kitteridge, though perhaps not quite as annoying or as interesting.
November 30, 2023
I can see how people love/don't love this novel. I'm a huge fan of Scandanavian lit, and I really wanted to like this book. For me, its bland narrative (granted, in translation) didn't strike the chord it seemed very hard to be aiming to strike. And that was my primary issue--we have the nondescript protagonist with a murky recycled back story, the husband with his sad but recycled story, Anthony with his sad but recycled story, a few others in the mix, oh, yes, the sister and her sad but recycled story. Oh, wait, something happened to Mom, too. Nothing seemed fresh, they just seemed like the usual sad stories stirred up together, kinda like the end of a play where [not a spoiler] everyone dies at the end. I wasn't a fan of the shifting time frames, either. And the pointless (to me, anyway) tossing in of the circus dwarf (I'm using the word as translated) really didn't sit well with me--that kind of detail is a tired old saw that needs to be retired permanently. The protagonist is an unlikable character. Granted, she doesn't have to be likeable to succeed (case in point: Sabbath's Theater), but she's very flat except when she's raging over some inconsequential matter. Or maybe I've just read too many of these post-WWII "secret history" novels to find much benefit in reading yet another. I had this novel on my shelf for years. It's an attractive book, and I am sure someone will appreciate its donation to the local library sale.
October 31, 2011
I first read this book in 2005, and hoped that after reading it again, I'd be able to pass it along to make some room on my overcrowded bookshelves. No such luck. Several pages in, I was hooked again.
The writing is so graceful that you don't mind the slow pacing as the story unfolds. As Disa ponders her trip from England to her native Iceland, you can hear the crackle of the ice outside, smell the apples she's baking, hear the murmur of her guests in the next room. Much of it seems dreamlike, and the story goes from past to present and back again, as her many memories come back to her.
A good book for a cool fall evening.
The writing is so graceful that you don't mind the slow pacing as the story unfolds. As Disa ponders her trip from England to her native Iceland, you can hear the crackle of the ice outside, smell the apples she's baking, hear the murmur of her guests in the next room. Much of it seems dreamlike, and the story goes from past to present and back again, as her many memories come back to her.
A good book for a cool fall evening.
March 25, 2012
The first third of this elegant novel left me oddly ambivalent, but it grew on me. It deals with the life-and-death moments of ordinary existence with restraint, realistic ambiguity and tenderness. Olaf Olafsson doesn't waste a word, and the words are tasty:
"Then the gaze of my Maker left me in peace, as did his justice -- his justice which is nothing but punishment, his love which is nothing but contempt, his touch which is a blow, his mercy which is death. Then my Maker left me in peace and threw his breadcrumbs to other small birds."
I would have liked to read more about the food. Disa seems too detached from the subject, considering her workplace is a kitchen.
"Then the gaze of my Maker left me in peace, as did his justice -- his justice which is nothing but punishment, his love which is nothing but contempt, his touch which is a blow, his mercy which is death. Then my Maker left me in peace and threw his breadcrumbs to other small birds."
I would have liked to read more about the food. Disa seems too detached from the subject, considering her workplace is a kitchen.
May 26, 2014
This character-driven novel is a qiet, introspective look at the life of Asdis "Disa" Jonsdottir as she prepares herself and Anthony for her death. She and Anthony have been running a hotel from his ancestral home, where Disa as the chef has been offering excellent food to their clientele. Disa has a terminal illness and has promised to return to her native Iceland before she dies to put to rest the ghosts of her past. A beautifully rendered book about family, love, persistence, and regret.
July 19, 2017
An Icelandic woman who saw great disappointments in her love life settles down to run an English inn with a homosexual male friend. She's the proud and willful head chef. Now, as she has about a year left to live, she sets off to Iceland to see a special someone, on a journey that opens the floodgates of bad memories.
It's a nicely told, quiet story.
I wish I'd known at the start what era we were in, so that I could have accurately pictured the protagonist. In my mind she was maybe 65, but it turns out (from events at the very end) that she's about my age.
It's a nicely told, quiet story.
I wish I'd known at the start what era we were in, so that I could have accurately pictured the protagonist. In my mind she was maybe 65, but it turns out (from events at the very end) that she's about my age.
May 7, 2008
A very good book, but not a great book and I guess I was hoping for great. The story of a dying woman in Scotland who decides to journey home to the village in Iceland where she grew up. In the process she faces many demons from her past. My main problem was that the character wasn't entirely likable, which I suppose made her more human, but I was thinking that with all she had been through she would have been more humane.
August 12, 2016
I read this because I was intrigued by the author's background and wanted to learn more about Icelandic culture. The book was really well written and constructed. However, when I reached the end, I couldn't figure out why the author had gone to all the trouble of writing it. The surprise ending didn't seem like that much of a surprise, not such a big deal. The characters didn't stay with me for more than a few days after finishing the book. I had hoped for greater moral or emotional depth.
February 3, 2019
A quiet, but powerful book. It had some themes I didn't expect (WWII as the most unexpected theme). Family relations, introspection, love, prejudice and great food..all mixed in a novel not so much about Iceland, but the unique journey through life and different relationships between people. Like browsing through a family album and some postcards and memorabilia, which aren't always what they seem.
January 6, 2014
I agree with the reviewers who have recognised a similarity in style to Kazuo Ishiguro's work, which is one of the reasons this book was so enjoyable. Olaf has created a complex, stubborn character who, for all her faults, is admirably stoic and ultimately wise. Memories are recalled, seemingly at random, but in a way that gives cohesiveness and depth to the narrative
January 6, 2014
I agree with the reviewers who have recognised a similarity in style to Kazuo Ishiguro's work, which is one of the reasons this book was so enjoyable. Olaf has created a complex, stubborn character who, for all her faults, is admirably stoic and ultimately wise. Memories are recalled, seemingly at random, but in a way that gives cohesiveness and depth to the narrative.
January 27, 2018
3.5 stars. I recommend reading this book over long periods. It has really short chapters, but the book is paced for long sittings. It is an understated story, I did not come away actually liking the main character much, but it draws one in and is extremely moving and has a very haunting way of unfolding the pieces of her life, and just how bittersweet life is.
December 16, 2013
I really enjoy reading an Olafsson book. His vivid imagery pulls you into the story.
December 4, 2013
Quietly powerful. Evocative of England and Iceland. A series of journeys "home."
May 1, 2024
This Icelandic novel is similar to the one I just finished (Miss Iceland) in that it's sort of like a time capsule focused on a female character who has a gay companion. They are both short and engaging novels. But while Miss Iceland emphasized oppression (of women and gays), in this one the character is older and the focus is on mortality and looking back on one's life.
I gave Miss Iceland 5 stars (partly because of the focus on oppression), but this one gets 4. I didn't really like the main character, Disa. She judged people harshly (for example for showing emotion and "weakness" when one's parents were in danger after Kristallnacht or encouraging a fellow passenger to kill himself because he was annoying and she knew he was too weak to go through with it). She also held grudges and was a know-it-all, even trying to improve the way an Icelandic waitress treated foreign guests. One of her helpful hints? Telling her to try and get her hands on a rare book written in Boston in 1827.
The other reason I gave it 4 stars was that it confusingly goes back and forth between past and present and place to place with not even a section marker to distinguish it. I'm sure it is intended as stream of consciousness, that something in the present reminds her of something in the past. And it does allow the mystery of her past trauma to be unveiled gradually. However, the lack of section markers is somewhat annoying just the same.
That said, there were a couple laughs and touching scenes and some interesting but down to earth reflections on religion, war, aging, etc. For example, people often say, "I really must come back here one day," but as an older, dying person the likelihood of that shrinks by the day. Simple, but something we have to come to terms with.
The book touches on Icelandic Nazis and German admiration during World War 2. A character even brags that Iceland had the first sterilization law (Gragas medieval law) allowing castration of vagrants without punishment, even if they die in the process.
I plan to read another book by this author in the future.
I gave Miss Iceland 5 stars (partly because of the focus on oppression), but this one gets 4. I didn't really like the main character, Disa. She judged people harshly (for example for showing emotion and "weakness" when one's parents were in danger after Kristallnacht or encouraging a fellow passenger to kill himself because he was annoying and she knew he was too weak to go through with it). She also held grudges and was a know-it-all, even trying to improve the way an Icelandic waitress treated foreign guests. One of her helpful hints? Telling her to try and get her hands on a rare book written in Boston in 1827.
The other reason I gave it 4 stars was that it confusingly goes back and forth between past and present and place to place with not even a section marker to distinguish it. I'm sure it is intended as stream of consciousness, that something in the present reminds her of something in the past. And it does allow the mystery of her past trauma to be unveiled gradually. However, the lack of section markers is somewhat annoying just the same.
That said, there were a couple laughs and touching scenes and some interesting but down to earth reflections on religion, war, aging, etc. For example, people often say, "I really must come back here one day," but as an older, dying person the likelihood of that shrinks by the day. Simple, but something we have to come to terms with.
The book touches on Icelandic Nazis and German admiration during World War 2. A character even brags that Iceland had the first sterilization law (Gragas medieval law) allowing castration of vagrants without punishment, even if they die in the process.
I plan to read another book by this author in the future.
February 11, 2024
An Icelandic woman, chef/ proprietor of a summer hotel in England for decades returns home for one last visit, reflecting on her life and connections, her rupture with her mother and sister, and life she has kept under wraps for most of her adulthood. Asdis' restraint, reserve, and outbursts of forthrightness make her a challenging character, but the journey into her inner life and her connection to pastoral England and unforgiving Iceland is worth it-- and the prose is lovely.
"The clowns await the evening in their best clothes, newly shaven and reeking of aftershave, wet-combed, with an aperitif in their hands, smiling and happy as slugs in wet moss." p.159
"But now it was trying to rain and the wind howled like a beaten dog, as it fumbled for dead leaves to sweep up off the pavements." p.190
"You grow up, people say, as if they have attained some higher wisdom, and will even put on a solemn face if they are sufficiently dishonest with themselves, or else mutter the assertion in low tones, avoiding looking in the mirror." p. 238
"Hope is the sister of self- deception and I have learned to avoid those sisters as far as I can. Their smile is fawning and their manner false, they give many promises but keep few of them. Nowadays I will make a detour especially to avoid them..." p. 239
"The clowns await the evening in their best clothes, newly shaven and reeking of aftershave, wet-combed, with an aperitif in their hands, smiling and happy as slugs in wet moss." p.159
"But now it was trying to rain and the wind howled like a beaten dog, as it fumbled for dead leaves to sweep up off the pavements." p.190
"You grow up, people say, as if they have attained some higher wisdom, and will even put on a solemn face if they are sufficiently dishonest with themselves, or else mutter the assertion in low tones, avoiding looking in the mirror." p. 238
"Hope is the sister of self- deception and I have learned to avoid those sisters as far as I can. Their smile is fawning and their manner false, they give many promises but keep few of them. Nowadays I will make a detour especially to avoid them..." p. 239
November 16, 2020
What a masterful piece of writing! It could have been so confusing and off-putting: the when and where each section might be; the bits of info not quite complete or clear; the in-so-many-ways a not very admirable or likeable main character. And yet, it works, and works well.
I wasn’t so sure at first. I paused once I finished the first section, just three pages, and I almost put it back on the shelf. It seemed to repetitive and dwelt overly long on smells, something I find annoying and tiresome as I myself cannot relate.
But I persisted, and very glad I did. Additionally, it is one of the few books that has caused me to gasp audibly. The horror we think she is reliving and that haunts her, as awful as that is, is not what she must hide.
Quotes that caught my eye
The soul can take delight in small things if one’s dreams only leave it in peace long enough. (43)
Perhaps ignorance and self-deception are the best insurance for a happy life, and so it would be best to leave this world in perfect ignorance of what was true and what false. (209)
Down in the living room the old clock carried on its futile race against time. (273)
I wasn’t so sure at first. I paused once I finished the first section, just three pages, and I almost put it back on the shelf. It seemed to repetitive and dwelt overly long on smells, something I find annoying and tiresome as I myself cannot relate.
But I persisted, and very glad I did. Additionally, it is one of the few books that has caused me to gasp audibly. The horror we think she is reliving and that haunts her, as awful as that is, is not what she must hide.
Quotes that caught my eye
The soul can take delight in small things if one’s dreams only leave it in peace long enough. (43)
Perhaps ignorance and self-deception are the best insurance for a happy life, and so it would be best to leave this world in perfect ignorance of what was true and what false. (209)
Down in the living room the old clock carried on its futile race against time. (273)
February 7, 2018
I really enjoyed this quiet, slow-burning meditative novel. Disa is Icelandic, but has long lived in the English countryside. She is the chef in a lovely small hotel owned by her longtime friend Anthony. They seem to be a couple, and are, but not romantically. It is early summer when the novel opens, and the hotel is already booked for the next seven weeks. Disa will be leaving this behind. She is on her way back to Iceland, for the first time in many years, on a quiet kind of mission. The writing is evocative, filled with the naturalistic, and as Disa's story opens up, it becomes more and more powerful. Her story - both present day, and in her past - unfolds in her strong voice. She is thoughtful and intelligent and observant, and yet we get tidbits that show she might be a harder, colder person than upon first impression. I wish I'd read this in paper, rather than on a kindle. I think the paper version is formatted so it shows diary-like entries, but the kindle just strung everything together. This is the second Olafsson novel I've read and I'm really taken with his work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews