[Read aloud to Adelle, although my pronunciation of the Icelandic words and place names leaves rather a lot to be desired]
The Raven’s Nest, an Icelandic Journey through Light and Darkness by Sarah Thomas
This book follows the discovery of a new land by the writer, a land of wonder, of love, of darkness and isolation, of community. She recalls the story of how she found her way to falling in love with a member of the community in Iceland, and came to join that community herself.
There are a few stories interwoven here, about her marriage, about her moving to the Westfjords area and becoming a part of the community there, about their house and how they make it their own and about coming to terms with the landscape and the cycle of winter and summer.
Their marriage is a touching story about falling in love easily, only to find keeping that love going through depression and winter darkness is much harder. His family are supportive, helping with the buying and renovation of a house for them to live in and giving her an insight into the community nature of living in rural Iceland.
Life there is pastoral, with families helping each other with sheep gatherings and the moving of houses, literally, the cover shows a summer house being floated to another fjord. To go with this there are some brutal animal welfare moments, which might be best avoided if you care much about animals. The attitudes are very different from those we are used to in this country.
She describes the Jekyll and Hyde nature of summer and winter in the far North, with much tourist activity over three short summer months sustaining the economy for the remainder of the year – there is no opportunity to relax during the season. While the winters leave whole towns in shade for months, the first sun shining in the valley a portent of the summer to come.
This reminds me in many ways of our time in Sweden, where they have two modes, preparing for midsummer or preparing for Christmas. Joy and gloom in near equal measure on an annual cycle. Indeed, much of her story of integration into local society and culture had parallels with our time in Stockholm, hers amplified by greater latitude and more isolation.
It took her a long time to become a part of the community – there is a tradition of the local newspaper running a story on incomers, but they wait until they are sure they are going to stay for a while. This acts as an introduction to the entire town, a place of 2,600 people where everyone knows, or at least knows of, everyone.
There are not many jobs that can be done year round by non-Icelandic speakers, so she used her other languages to work as a tour guide for cruise ship passengers over the summers while she still kept to her film making and art over the winters. After a couple of years she suddenly noticed that she was conversing in the local tongue and was fluent enough to take a job as a florist at the department store.
The book is a charming window into the life of the writer, she is open about her feelings and experiences, expressing surprise and confusion at some of the customs, but also bringing local knowledge to the explanations. She obviously looks back on her time there fondly, albeit tempered by the ultimate failure of her marriage and move to the country. This is not a spoiler, she tells us in the first chapter about how she is packing up her house to leave – without which the end of the book would be a harrowing emotional journey. At the time of writing she clearly still loves her husband, Bjarni, but the life there doesn’t work for her, for them together.