Depths (2021)

A captivating novel of colorful characters, giant pavlova‘s, the relationship between people and nature, love and strife. It’s 1975, the year of the woman in Iceland, and biology student Valborg has gotten a summer job through a regional development fund to jump start the social calendar and increase job opportunities in the fragile, rural community of Djúpið with the help of the locals. Valborg is whip smart but no social butterfly when it comes to dealing with others, and sharing a living space with her coworkers at the local boarding school proves to be a challenge. She comes face-to-face with a reality in which women are expected to make the coffee and wait hand and foot on the men who make the decisions. Even in the midst of the year of the woman. Her summer stay in the Westfjords makes it clear that the individual is no more fragile than the community, and within her are untold depths to be found. Benný Sif Ísleifsdóttir has built a reputation for her novels about the working-class women of Iceland and their ceaseless fight for a seat at the table.

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