Miss Iceland

Hekla is named after a volcano. You'd expect her to erupt and spit fire at any point, given the misogny and inequalities she experiences in her daily life. Yet this novel is set in Iceland in the 1960s, and therefore Hekla needs to keep quiet, hide her profession as aspiring novelist, and disregard all the hidden insults she receives from publishers and even her boyfriend. She sustains herself with a deep belief in herself and in her craft, and through the support and love she receives from her gay best friend Jon John, who equally struggles in a world that's not ready for him yet.

There's a lovely melancholy and levity in the sparse prose. While you feel removed from the anger and sadness the protagonists must feel, the book still packs gutpunches, they just come in the sparsest of fleeting sentences. I hope Hekla and Jon John are happy on their travels.

Given that I read this for WITmonth, I loved that Hekla herself is constantly in search of books by female writers, local and foreign.