Book of the day - Names for the Sea

 

    Over on Cornflower Books yesterday we were talking about books which are on our wish lists, and Liz left a comment reminding me of one that's been on mine for ages. Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss (author of one of my favourite novels of 2011, the excellent Night Waking - read about it here) is her account of her year spent living in Iceland. Here's the blurb:

    "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 Eyjafjallajökull 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.

    I haven't got the book yet but I wanted to mention it here because it's just out and sounds so good, and - following on neatly from yesterday's post - to show you its very distinctive 'knitted' cover! Adèle wrote about it before it acquired that jacket, and as you'll see from her piece, it includes an excellent chapter on knitting.

Comments

[Nancy]

I was just going to ask you if that cover was knitted, or was it cross-stitch (ignorant of the intricacies, here). :-)

[Rosie]

I've been totally spellbound by this book over the last few days. I'm trying to rush through it as I want to lend it to a friend who I'm seeing tomorrow evening... but this is a book that demands to be read slowly and savoured. And I'm partiuclarly looking forward to the chapter entitled "knitting and guilt". I've not read either of Moss's novels, though, so I know what I'll be reading next.

[Cornflower]

"Totally spellbound" is a great reaction to a book!
I haven't read "Cold Earth" yet, though I have it waiting, but "Night Waking" was great.

[Liz F]

Now I have seen it I have got to have it - library book won't do! Trouble is I want the Paul Hollywood cook book and Polpo too - drat and double drat!

[MelD]

An exhausting mix of lovely travel writing and description with (for me) excruciatingly over-Britishness of a certain type/class that really spoilt it for me. Many attitudes had me cringing, even more so as Moss' own background became clear. Not a book for anyone who has left the British Isles, I fear. Sadly, it's really put me off reading her novels, which I would probably have enjoyed not knowing the author has now decided to retire to Warwickshire and never move again... ??? (no objections to Warwickshire, it's lovely but perhaps not extensive after going to live in Iceland and dreaming of Singapore, something about conservatism and blinkeredness, there, in my view!)
And yes, a fairly uninformative and wandering chapter on knitting. Nope, not impressed with that either (or her horror of dogs?!).