A Fist or a Heart
Written by Kristín Eiríksdóttir
Narrated by Janet Metzger
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The past returns with a fury for a woman coming to terms with her life in this award-winning novel by an acclaimed Icelandic author making her English-language debut.
Elín Jónsdóttir lives an isolated existence in Reykjavík, Iceland, making props and prosthetics for theatrical productions and Nordic crime flicks. In her early seventies, she has recently become fascinated with another loner, Ellen Álfsdóttir, a sensitive young playwright and illegitimate daughter of a famous writer. The girl has aroused maternal feelings in Elín, but she has also stirred discomfiting memories long packed away. Because their paths have crossed before. One doesn’t remember. The other is about to forget.
Soon they’ll discover all they have in common: difficult childhoods, trauma, and being outliers who have found space to breathe in creative expression. Yet the more Elín tries to connect with the young woman and unbox painful memories, the more tenuous her grasp on reality becomes.
Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize, A Fist or a Heart is a gripping, artfully interwoven novel of power, secrets, and isolation by one of the most bracing and original voices of the author’s generation.
Kristín Eiríksdóttir
Kristín Eiríksdóttir is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright from Reykjavík, Iceland. Her original edition of A Fist or a Heart won the Icelandic Literary Prize 2017 as well as the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize 2018, and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2019. The novel took second place for the Icelandic Booksellers’ Prize and was selected as one of the best novels of 2017 by the Icelandic National Radio. Eiríksdóttir has published seven books and had three plays staged. Her short fiction has appeared in Best European Fiction 2011. A Fist or a Heart is her first novel to be translated into English.
Related to A Fist or a Heart
Related audiobooks
The Greenhouse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things that Fall from the Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Place of the Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerta: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reunion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Your Hands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Karitas Untitled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Presence of Absence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Last Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Quiet Tide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Valley at the Centre of the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loop Tracks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Archaeology of Loss: Life, love and the art of dying Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnots: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Blunder: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wisdom of Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chaos, A Fable Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Blaze Island Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death is Hard Work: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return to the Enchanted Island: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Instructions for the Working Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Spy Lover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Museum of Abandoned Secrets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Ad Could Go Here: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storytellers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cherry Blossoms Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bicycling Over the Ocean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Immortal Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The City Still Breathing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLong Live the Post Horn! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Fist or a Heart
16 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elín, againReview of the Amazon Crossing paperback (2019) English translation of the Icelandic original "Elín, ýmislegt" (Elín, miscellaneous) (2017)This was a full reading of the print edition, which I had previously only occasionally referred to during a listening of the Audible Audio edition last month. I had the same favourable impression, finding it just as intriguing. It was definitely easier to follow on a re-read having the previous familiarity and not being distracted or confused by the audio similarity of the Elín, Ellen and Helen names.