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An unexpectedly entertaining and moreish tale of life in a fishing community on the Faroe islands in the 1940s.
First, there's the whole Faroe milieu. I've never read anything written by an author from those islands and, indeed, had to confirm their exact location on the map. I also hadn't known that Faroese is a language of its own. So there was the sheer smug sense of reading something "niche".
Second, the Faroese milieu described is almost comically what one would expect of a traditional Euro ...more
First, there's the whole Faroe milieu. I've never read anything written by an author from those islands and, indeed, had to confirm their exact location on the map. I also hadn't known that Faroese is a language of its own. So there was the sheer smug sense of reading something "niche".
Second, the Faroese milieu described is almost comically what one would expect of a traditional Euro ...more
If you draw a triangle from the top of Scotland to the west coast of Norway to Iceland, the 18 Faroe Islands would sit roughly in the center of that. This slim novel depicts life there as it was just about the time World War II was kicking off. The story centers on an elderly man of 70, who lives with his wife (referred to throughout simply as "the old woman") and an adult son who would be classified as developmentally disabled in our time. Life is harsh, with rough weather and most people tryin
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Apr 10, 2013
Annie
marked it as to-read
Jan 28, 2016
Megan
marked it as to-read
