Animal Life

By: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Brian FitzGibbon - translator

Narrated by: Ann Richardson

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 neighbor, Dómhildur escapes into her grandaunt’s archive and discovers strange and beautiful reflections on birth, death, and human nature.

With her singular warmth and humor, Ólafsdóttir gives us a beguiling novel that comes direct from the depths of an Icelandic winter, full of hope for spring.

©2022 Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (P)2022 Dreamscape Media

Delightful and Entertaining

I enjoyed the Icelandic setting and learning about the culture there. I liked the theme of midwifery and the philosophical focus on light and darkness… life and death. Often the writing meandered, but that seemed inherent to the book. I missed having the authoress read her own story, but the narrator did a fine job.