Description |
358 pages ; 21 cm |
Summary |
Novelist Sarah Moss had a childhood dream of moving to Iceland, sustained by a wild summer there when she was nineteen. In 2009, she saw an advertisement for a job at the University of Iceland and applied on a whim, despite having two young children and a comfortable life in an English cathedral city. The resulting adventure was shaped by Iceland's economic collapse, which halved the value of her salary, by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull and by a collection of new friends, including a poet who saw the only bombs fall on Iceland in 1943, a woman who speaks to elves and a chef who guided Sarah's family around the intricacies of Icelandic cuisine. Sarah was drawn to the strangeness of Icelandic landscape, and explored hillsides of boiling mud, volcanic craters and fissures, and the unsurfaced roads that link remote farms and fishing villages in the far north. She walked the coast path every night after her children were in bed, watching the northern lights and the comings and goings of migratory birds. As the weeks and months went by, the children settled in local schools and Sarah got to know her students and colleagues, she and her family learned new ways to live. |
Contents |
Iceland first seen -- Leave of absence -- Vestmannaeyjar -- Back to school -- Pétur's saga -- Winter -- The icesave thing -- Spring -- Eyjafjallajökull -- Vilborg -- The hidden people -- A small farm under a crag -- In search of the Kreppa -- Knitting and shame -- Last weekend -- Beautiful is the hillside. |
Subject |
Moss, Sarah -- Homes and haunts -- Iceland.
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Moss, Sarah -- Family.
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Iceland -- Description and travel.
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Iceland -- Social life and customs.
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Travel writing -- Anecdotes.
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Eyjafjallajökull Volcano (Iceland)
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Added Title |
Strangers in Iceland |
ISBN |
9781619021228 paperback |
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1619021226 paperback |
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