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katalia's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
eriynali's review against another edition
4.0
reminded me of a more abstract version of "of mice and men"
shoba's review against another edition
4.0
Reverend Baldur Skuggason shots and kills the elusive blue fox and sets off an avalanche. He finds himself trapped in a cave and starts to hallucinate.
“The black one, the shy one, the dancer, and the yelper; they were all the same fox. It could not be otherwise.
‘They're all the same fox, all the same fox. They're all the same fox, all the same fox. They're all the same fox, all the same fox.…’
He repeated the words over and over like a man groping his way out of a nightmare, crying out in his mind.”
Reverend Skuggason’s servant, Halfdan Atlason, visits the herbist, Fridrik Fridjonsson. Atlason was there to pick up the coffin with Fridjonsson’s assistant, Abba, for the Reverend to bury later that day.
And all the while I was wondering why Fridjonsson was not attending Abba’s funeral and why he wrote the note to Reverend Skuggason about dreaming of a blue fox.
“PS Last night I dreamed of a blue vixen.
She ran along the screes, heading up the valley. She was as fat as butter, with a pelt of prodigious thickness.”
Upon her death, Fridjonsson retrieves the canvas bundle Abba always kept with her. Opening it, he finds two identical packages of 24 wooden tablets. One tablet slides into the other and sentences by Ovid appear in Latin.
“Omnia mutantur- nihil interit. Fridrik laughs scornfully: ‘All things change- nothing perishes’”….and then the phrase “The burden that is well borne becomes light”….Fridjonsson thinks, “Yes, if the two halves of the puzzle were laid together they would form an artfully crafted, highly polished coffin.”
Fridjonsson buries Abba’s body in the copse of rowen trees they planted together, a fitting resting place.
“Abba deserved a different soul mate, fairer earth.”
missbookiverse's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful small tale, translated from the Icelandic. I enjoyed the sparse prose, the descriptions of nature, the appreciation of tea, the inclusion of disability, and the narrative structure (there are four parts set at different times during the 19th century that form a whole, just like the puzzle that appears in the story). I felt very sorry for the vixen but it also seemed like she got her revenge in the end.
javansutton's review against another edition
dark
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
cathiedalziel's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars for a chilly fantasy story set in Icelandic folklore and countryside. A good short (115 pages) story. I love it when I'm introduced to new reads and new-to-me-authors.
This book is about about the intertwinedness (a new word I just made up but it fits) of life.
This is a tale of a hunter heading into the mountains to kill a blue fox.
It is also a story of a Down's Syndrome girl who is taken in by a naturalist farmer because in the 19th century it was a death sentence to be born with Downs Syndrome. These two stories meet at the end, along with some magical realism thrown in during the third section, and a nice wicked twist of fate, as revealed by the ending.
This is an incredibly fast read and a interesting story, told in an Icelandic setting between January 8th and March 23rd, 1883. Don't let the 19th century dates put you off; it's downright creepy in the end.
This wouldn't have ever been on my reading radar, I don't think, but I received it in a PageHabit Quarterly box last year.
(You can visit their webpage here: https://pagehabit.com/quarterly/literary-fiction-book-boxes.
The books they choose to send have always been interesting.)
If you are looking for something new to pick up to read, I would recommend this short tale to anyone who likes fantasy folklore.
This book is about about the intertwinedness (a new word I just made up but it fits) of life.
This is a tale of a hunter heading into the mountains to kill a blue fox.
It is also a story of a Down's Syndrome girl who is taken in by a naturalist farmer because in the 19th century it was a death sentence to be born with Downs Syndrome. These two stories meet at the end, along with some magical realism thrown in during the third section, and a nice wicked twist of fate, as revealed by the ending.
This is an incredibly fast read and a interesting story, told in an Icelandic setting between January 8th and March 23rd, 1883. Don't let the 19th century dates put you off; it's downright creepy in the end.
This wouldn't have ever been on my reading radar, I don't think, but I received it in a PageHabit Quarterly box last year.
(You can visit their webpage here: https://pagehabit.com/quarterly/literary-fiction-book-boxes.
The books they choose to send have always been interesting.)
If you are looking for something new to pick up to read, I would recommend this short tale to anyone who likes fantasy folklore.
jennswan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Gore, and Animal death
revjess's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5