Animal Life by Audur Ava Olafsdottir

 

Animal Life by Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir.

Translated from the Icelandic by Brian Fitzgibbon.

Published 8th December 2022 by Pushkin Press.

From the cover of the book:

In the days leading up to Christmas, Dómhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes from a long line of midwives on her mother's side and a long line of undertakers on her father's. She even lives in the apartment that she inherited from her grandaunt, a midwife with a unique reputation for her unconventional methods. 

As a terrible storm races towards Reykjavik, Dómhildur discovers decades worth of letters and manuscripts hidden amongst her grandaunt's clutter. Fielding calls from her anxious meteorologist sister and visits from her curious new neighbour, Dómhildur escapes into her grandaunt's archive and discovers strange and beautiful reflections on birth, death and human nature. For even in the depths of an Icelandic winter, new life will find a way.

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Dómhildur proudly follows a long tradition of midwives in her mother's family, and in the days running up to Christmas delivers her 1,922nd baby. Named for her formidable midwife grandaunt, she even lives in the apartment she inherited from her, but has been unable to bring herself to sort through all the possessions she left behind following her death year ago.

As a massive storm approaches Reykjavik, Dómhildur battles through the ice and snow to work through the night delivering babies and helping parents through times of joy and heartache, while trying to come to terms with where life has also brought her. Between the times she is immersed in her vocation, dealing with calls from her anxious meteorologist sister, and a embarking on a developing friendship with a tourist who has moved in upstairs, Dómhildur realises she has fallen between the cracks: the moment has come for her to tackle the things left behind by her grandaunt - and she discovers something unexpected.

Tucked away in a box in the wardrobe, her grandaunt has left behind a treasure trove of papers and manuscripts that show there was a lot more to her than her considerable midwifery wisdom. As she delves into the thoughts her namesake committed to paper, Dómhildur comes to understand so much more about, birth, life, and death; and how light can return, even in the darkest times - and she finds a way to move forward herself.

What a truly beautiful little book. I began to read this expecting a family tale about Icelandic midwives and their history, and although this is indeed what I have found, there is so much more!

The format of the book is somewhat unconventional, broken up between moments from Dómhildur's calling as a midwife, the time she spends in her apartment, snippets of wisdom from her grandaunt, conversations with her apprehensive sister, and the visitor upstairs - and, as the tale develops, the literary reflections taken from her grandaunt's writings. It does take a little while to get your head around the rhythm of the story, but you soon become lost in the way the scattered pieces come together.

"Everything connects..."

There is so much here about love, loss, fragility, and the philosophical questions that we ask ourselves as we navigate the triumphs and tragedies of life, and Ólafsdóttir does a magnificent job of weaving these themes throughout the very intimate moments she describes as well as the more abstract passages. My absolute favourite thing about this book is the way Ólafsdóttir uses light, in its many forms, to express the idea of hope in despair, which fits deliciously with the long days of Icelandic darkness that are once again brought alive by the return of the sun. However, she also expands the scope of this piece to bring in a myriad of meditations on connection, nature, and the environment too, which explore humanity, and climate change in the most thought provoking of ways.

This book completely worked its way under my skin in a way I did not foresee. It is tender, impassioned, and deeply moving, while also being esoteric, uplifting, and inspirational. It is a stirring combination, and I take my hat off to the translator Brian Fitzgibbon for deftly preserving the subtlety of the concepts explored in Olafsdottir spellbinding story. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Animal Life is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.

Thank you to Pushkin Press for sending me a paperback copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir is a prize-winning novelist, playwright and poet. Audur Ava's novels have been translated into over 25 languages, and they include Butterflies in November, Hotel Silence and Miss Iceland, also published by Pushkin Press. 

Hotel Silence won the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the Icelandic Literary Prize, and was chosen Best Icelandic Novel in 2016 by the booksellers in Iceland. Miss Iceland won the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Icelandic Booksellers Prize. 

Audur Ava lives in Reykjavik.