Expect to learn much more about the author than the country of Iceland, despite her evocative descriptions of the landscape. Difficult for me to get past her dislike of dogs. ( )

Fascinating memoir of the author’s experience living in Reykjavík, Iceland, with her husband and two young sons. She moved from England in 2009 to take a job teaching 19th century British literature at the University of Iceland. This book provides detailed accounts of what it is like to be a newcomer (which she and the Icelandic people call “foreigner”) to Iceland and how her family adapted. She also covers the weather, landscape, food, recreation, customs, traditions, and cultural norms of the country.

Moss includes elements of history that may be new to some readers. She arrived in Iceland just after the financial collapse of 2008, known as the kreppa. She describes the “Pots and Pans Revolution” and the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in April 2010, which disrupted air travel and became global news.

She beautifully describes watching the aurora borealis with her son: “The sea is rough after the last storm, refracting oblongs of lime and violet framed by white foam, and the upper half of the world is festooned with light, swaying in figures and swathes that remind me one minute of a crowd of ball gowns hanging to dry, the next of searchlights coming from above.” She relates the pros and cons of living in a location that experiences half year of continuous light followed by a half year of darkness.

Moss is an engaging writer and does not shy away from describing her own shortcomings, such as not being willing to speak English to locals, while not being confident enough in her ability to converse in Icelandic. Luckily, her young sons learn the language quickly and can interpret for her. She also candidly discusses her struggles to fit into the local customs, such as allowing her children outside unsupervised in a rugged terrain. She inserts a bit of self-deprecating humor along the way.

The author takes time to get to know the people of Iceland through interactions, questioning, and interviews. The result is a pleasing combination of her own experiences and perspectives from residents. For example, she visits various people that share information about the country’s myths and legends, including elves, hidden people, and Yule Lads. In fact, some may be surprised to learn “the Department of Transportation consults mediums who speak to the hidden people.”

Even though Moss and her family encountered a few obstacles, she treats her subject with respect, and it is obvious how much she enjoyed living there. She spent most of her time in Reykjavík and went back later to travel to more remote places. This book goes beyond a typical travel memoir. It provides an empathetic and insightful exploration of this unique country.
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There's a lot of parallels to our own move to Iceland but it's different enough that I learned a bunch and felt taken for a ride, not spied upon. ( )

Sarah Moss had spent a summer in her teens touring Iceland with a friend. She fell in love with the people and the physical landscape. So, when in 2009 she saw a job as a lecturer at an Icelandic college, she packed up her two kids and husband and committed for a year.

She had expected to experience the most egalitarian democracy in Europe. However, she arrived during the collapse of Iceland’s economy due to banker’s overextending themselves. This, of course, changed many of the things she experienced – including having her salary worth about half of what she expected, making it a challenge to make ends meet.

Sarah Moss is a wordsmith and I loved her account of her year – the day to day challenges of living and raising children in a country with winters without sunrises and extreme cold, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption, her friend’s participation in the ‘Pots and Pans’ uprising and her explorations of the culture.

There were many topics that you’d expect her to explore – such as knitting and the hidden folk (faeries).

There were also many surprises for her – including the complete lack of Icelandic grown fruits and very few vegetables, causing her to explore the traditional Icelandic cooking. Other unexpected aspects included the cars Icelanders drive, and the total lack of opportunity to buy things second hand - which was the way she had planned to furnish her family’s apartment for the year.

Highly recommended – and I’ll definitely continue reading Sarah Moss. ( )

I love Sarah Moss and I've never been to Iceland, even though I'd love to go, so I was really excited to read this. Unlike the travel books by bold, independent travellers, this book has a different perspective - a middle-aged British professor moving to Iceland with her family following a teenage trip when she fell in love with the country.

But, I honestly wonder: how is it possible that in the age of google people really go somewhere for a year and do not do the research. Even if I haven't been to Iceland, I was surprised Moss didn't know about some of the things about Iceland that seem to be pretty pedestrian "common knowledge". I am not sure if that is just a literary device to make this whole experience sound more novel or genuine proof of how much people do get isolated in their "ivory towers". It seemed more the latter, and many of the remarks the author makes were kind of detached and "classist".

What is unique is that Sarah Moss, similar to her fiction, has this sombre, intellectual approach to cultural adaptation and being "a stranger in a strange land". Her year abroad is not a light-hearted, humorous adventure. She digs deep into the topics that fascinate her (the amount of detail makes this a tedious read at times), but there is this constant undertone of anxiety throughout the book.

What I found disappointing was that there was very little (if any) magic of moving to a new and strange place, especially the one like Iceland. I didn't feel that spark anywhere and this whole experience seemed to be more like a year of merely surviving and just dealing with the "weirdness" of the local folk.

The last quarter or so of the book was a little bit more joyful but too late to change the overall feel. It wasn't a bad read, but I simply expected something else. ( )