Dead Weight

Dead Weight / Hildur Knutsdottir
translated from the Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal
NY: Tor, 2026, c2025.
152 p.

This was a very unexpected read, a short novel that I found in my library system and grabbed because of WIT Month. It's an Icelandic story but an author who is new to me. 

Sometimes these random discoveries are just the thing! I was shocked and surprised by this one, all in the best ways. For something so short, it really packed a wallop, and the ending was on point. 

Unnur is a solitary woman, happy with her job and single life, but one day a cat appears in her apartment. She puts it out but it appears again. And as it turns out, it's a pregnant cat who gives birth to just one kitten in her bedroom. 

Unnur tries to do the right thing and find the owner, to return this cat who's decided that Unnur's home is a great place to settle into. She discovers that the owner is a young woman, Asta, who desperately wants her cat but thinks it would be safer with Unnur. Why? Asta's home life is unsettled, to say the least. 

Unnur doesn't have many friends, and Asta needs one - they start developing a kind of friendship, with Unnur feeling protective of both Asta and her cat. She starts to realize that Asta's boyfriend is a problem. And in her mind, problems need to be dealt with. 

I didn't predict this storyline, and was genuinely surprised by the plot as it progressed. I really liked the characters - the story is told from Unnur's perspective alone, we are inside her head for the whole book and so things surprise us as much as they do her. This has been called a "cathartic horror story" in publisher blurbs, and I think they got that spot on. The female rage driving the action, and Unnur's no-nonsense reactions feel believable and satisfying. I read this in one go - you can't stop, the story is plainly told but propulsive. It's definitely a one-sitting read. Recommended! 

Animal Life

 

Animal Life / Audur Ava Olafsdottir
trans. from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
NY: Black Cat, 2022, c2020.
188 p.

This short novel has an interesting premise: Dómhildur is a midwife, who descends from a long line of midwives on her mother's side and undertakers on her father's. It's the leadup to Christmas, and Dómhildur has just delivered her 1,922nd baby. She is taking some time off, and she is now living in the apartment that belonged to her aunt, a midwife known for her unconventional methods. 

As a storm rolls in, Dómhildur talks to a nosy neighbour, calls her anxious sister, and explores a wealth of writing and clippings left by her aunt -- including what appears to be an unfinished book. She discovers her aunt's strange reflections on birth, death and everything in between. She also finds that some of these writings echo her own experiences on the job and beyond. There is beauty among the strangeness, and hope for a new vision of life. 

This was a short read, and I had expected a little more about Dómhildur's work, as it seemed to be a big part of the blurb. But it was a bit more twisty, and focused on her experience of her aunt's life, her memories, and her thoughts on the future. It was ok -- I found it a little dry, a little slow moving, but maybe I wasn't quite in the mood. Read it on a stormy December night and it might be a bit easier to connect to! There were interesting concepts and characters, but it wasn't one I felt wowed by.