Summer light and then comes the night

A small village in western Iceland. A harsh landscape, a place on the very edge of human habitation. The revolutionary social changes of the late 20th century seem to have passed this place by. Nothing stays secret here: relationships, hardships, and joys are vividly interwoven into the stories of the local villagers. The narrator of this audiobook – perhaps the collective consciousness of the village – knows everything that happens here. They describe it precisely, comment with wisdom and perspective, and ask questions. One is particularly urgent: where do we come from, and where are we actually going? Desire, loneliness, death, and other difficult themes in this audiobook are stripped of all sentimentality or pathos. The stories are direct yet poetic, flowing simply and effortlessly, with a natural place for irony and humour – both bitter and kind. Much like the place where they unfold. For the novel, Stefánsson received Iceland's most prestigious literary award in 2005 and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. “We are constantly moving instead of sitting down for a moment, listening to the sound of the rain, drinking a coffee, warming someone's breast. And we never write letters to anyone.”