Animal Life

Author: Olafsdottir, Audur Ava (Author), FitzGibbon, Brian (Translator)

Fiction & related items

Published on 1 December 2022 by PUSHKIN PRESS in the United Kingdom.

In the days leading up to Christmas, Domhildur 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, Domhildur 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, Domhildur 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.