Fleshlight (2024)

A week before Bjossi left Alma, she awoke to a sound outside her bedroom window ... It was as if someone were digging their way out of the darkness behind her closed eyelids.

A gripping and thought-provoking story about family bonds and friendship, space and boundaries, freedom and the abyss, and how people choose to live their lives.

Alma holds a PhD in philosophy and is a former university lecturer, but since she and Bjossi moved back to his childhood village, she has been teaching at the local primary school and dyeing her hair pink. Markus, her thirty-three-year-old stepson, lives with them and spends his days and nights in his room on the computer. One day, a brown package arrives for him in the mail, marking a turning point for all of them.

Reviews

... one of the most interesting writers of his generation.

MORGUNBLADID DAILY

A beautiful and philosophical novel that for this reason could be read ten times or more.

JOHANNES OLAFSSON, BARA BAEKUR, RUV NATIONAL RADIO

Fleshlight by Jonas Reynir Gunnarsson is a surreal and thought-provoking novel, somewhat reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, though the story here is more grounded and directly engages with contemporary issues. Instead of a young girl, the protagonists are a middle-aged woman, her husband, and her stepson, each embarking on their own journey and ending up in vastly different places, both literally and metaphorically... The story touches on themes such as modern disconnection, how computers can take over people’s lives, and the profound impact we have on each other's existence... It’s a funny, entertaining read, highly open to interpretation.

STEINGERDUR STEINARSDOTTIR, LIFDU NUNA