Dos novelitas nórdicas

The title of this book is not a metaphor. Two little nordic novels is exactly what it is: one little novel followed by another, both with a Nordic setting. “The story of Ø” tells how the handful of inhabitants of a tiny island in the Norwegian Sea, which is inevitably sinking due to climate change, decide to safeguard the collective memory of the land that has been their home for generation. This memory is encapsulated in the objects and traditions that have shaped their way of life and somehow shaped the landscape itself. “Mancha” describes the arrival of a young Spanish teacher in Flekke, a Norwegian town populated by eccentric inhabitants (don’t we all seem that way in the eyes of foreigners?). This first-person account unfolds the narrator’s experiences with subtlety and a great sense of humor.