From Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir comes a heart-wrenching thriller about a woman’s desperate quest to save the people she loves from a natural disaster.
After an eight-hundred-year slumber, the volcanoes in Iceland’s most populated region are showing signs of life. Earthquakes dominate the headlines. Echoes of the devastating eruptions in the past stir unease in the people.
Volcanologist Anna Arnardóttir has spent her entire life studying the volcanic powers under the earth’s crust, but even she cannot fathom the catastrophe at hand.
As a series of eruptions threaten most of Iceland’s population, she’s caught off her rational guard by the most terrible natural disaster of all—love. The world as she knows it is about to fall apart, and so is her heart.
Caught between the safety of a nation and her feelings for her children, her lover, and her past, Anna embarks on a dangerous journey to save the lives of the people she loves—and her soul.
I'm thrilled to be hosting the blog tour for The Fires today. Many thanks to Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir, Amazon Publishing and FMcM Associates for inviting me and for sending me a beautiful hardback copy of the novel.
I'm sure many people who read The Fires will associate Iceland with the 2010 series of eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and the ash cloud which resulted in severe disruption to air travel in Europe. Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the constantly active geologic border between North America and Europe, its past, present and future has been or will be shaped by its capricious volcanic systems. It's a fascinatingly atmospheric setting but as well as being eerily prescient – four months after the book was published in Iceland, there was a real volcanic eruption, just a few kilometres and a handful of days apart from the fictional event – The Fires is also a heartrendingly emotive novel.
Although there are tense scenes and several cliffhanger moments, this isn't a pure thriller and while not a crime novel, it is reminiscent of the best of Nordic Noir; it's a melancholic story with a flawed, increasingly troubled protagonist in Anna Arnardóttir. Her wildly fluctuating emotions as she meets and almost immediately falls in love with photographer Tómas Adler cleverly mirrors the ominously destructive drama of the tectonic processes. She is a mass of contradictions, believing herself to be a rational scientist, in control of her feelings and basing her decisions on facts but as Tómas observes,
"You effervesce and crackle with feelings, they boil up inside you, shoot out in all directions."
As the novel progresses, Anna's battle between her heart and head plays out in both her domestic and professional life. She is a wife and mother, and while she has worked hard to give her children both what she gained from her geoscientist father and lost in her relationship with her troubled mother, it's painfully clear how her upbringing continues to influence her.
With constant earthquakes and an increase in volcanic activity meaning people in the Reykjanes Peninsula become used to the seismic interruptions and layer of ash over everything, she is appointed as a representative on the Scientific Council and expected make recommendations about what measures should be taken to protect public safety. However, as Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir shrewdly observes, public safety is often debated alongside the cost to the economy, particularly with regards to the tourism industry. As she reflects, an erupting volcano can become a revenue stream, attracting tourists eager to experience and not just see a volcano in action. As they debate the best course of action and whether to announce emergency protocols, it's impossible not to compare the conversations held here with similar arguments surrounding the Covid pandemic.
The portentous opening ensures that although much of the first-person narrative isn't fast paced, there is a constant sense of foreboding, with hints as to what is to come heightening the tension still further. There are no speech marks used but I didn't find that hindered my enjoyment of the book at all and thought it deftly portrayed the flow between spoken words and unconscious thoughts. Throughout the novel there are excerpts from scientific papers and books which describe the history and geological features of volcanic eruptions. It's not necessary to read them if you're the sort of person who prefers their stories uninterrupted but I often end up researching more about subjects in books so I loved these little interludes.
The final chapters of The Fires are undeniably nerve-racking but they are deeply moving too, with Anna haunted by guilt and fear as she is forced to confront the choices and mistakes she has made. The dramatic scenes are complemented by a conclusion that I can't really say much about for fear of spoilers but which is just a beautiful piece of writing. The translation by Larissa Kyzer is excellent and I thought the decision to leave the term of affection, 'my love' as the Icelandic 'ástin min' created a deeper sense of intimacy between Anna and Tómas.
Iceland isn't just an island of rocks and fire, it also has a rich heritage of poems and stories, and The Fires recognises and continues that legacy. Although clearly extensively researched, it never feels dry and as well as being a riveting thriller, it is a lyrical and profoundly emotive exploration of love. I loved it.
The Fires is published by Amazon Crossing and can be published from Amazon UK or Amazon US and is also available on Kindle Unlimited.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
Icelandic author Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir studied history in Reykjavík and Salamanca and journalism at Columbia University in New York and previously worked in Copenhagen before moving back to Reykjavík, where she lives with her husband, children, and stepchildren. Her bestselling debut, Island (2016), was nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize in 2017. Her highly anticipated third novel, The Fires, is a bestseller and viral hit in Iceland.
About the Translator
Larissa Kyzer is a writer and translator of Icelandic literature. She holds an MA in literary translation from the University of Iceland as well as an MS in library and information science and a BA in comparative literature. Her translation of Kristín Eiríksdóttir’s A Fist or a Heart (Amazon Crossing) was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s 2019 translation prize. The same year, she was one of Princeton University’s translators in residence.
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