Place of the Heart

The second contender so far for May's Book of the Month, Place Of The Heart is a very different novel to A Spoke In The Wheel, and I loved its gorgeous descriptions of Icelandic landscapes. Harpa, her daughter Edda and their friend, Heidur, drive across the south of Iceland on a route that Dave and I partially took during our Icelandic holiday several years ago now. Having seen the astounding countryside up close myself, I was captivated by Sigurdardottir's descriptions and explanations of what I had seen. I was also captivated by her story of these three women trying to get themselves to Harpa's homeland without practically murdering each other on the way.

Place Of The Heart is the third of a trio of dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship books I have recently read (after Craving and Ponti) and it is my favourite of the three. Harpa narrates her own story and I appreciated her sense of humour. As a mother, she is consumed with worry over her teenage daughter's delinquency, but she takes a wry view of how they have come to this situation. Self-depreciating and occasionally whimsical, Harpa imagines conversations with her own now-deceased mother and agonises over having left her father in Reykjavik in order to rescue her daughter. She also has to come to terms with a family secret that has always been in the background.

This review is starting to make Place Of The Heart sound a depressing novel, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. Edda's outbursts are shocking, but amusing just the same. Heidur and the Aunts are wonderful creations too. I don't think this novel will appeal to everyone, but if you like lots of description and intriguing characters then this might be a good fit.