The Last Days of My Mother

The setup: Hermann's girlfriend of seven years leaves him for a French dentist, then his native Iceland's banking system goes belly-up, and finally his 63-year-old mother, Eva, is diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer. The punch line: a bitterly laugh-out-loud novel of Nordic misery. Spurred by his mother's impending expiration date, the duo set out for the Netherlands, chasing the last-ditch hope of an unlicensed miracle drug called Ukrain offered by the Low Countries clinic. In fact, his mother's miracle drug of choice is alcohol, not to get "drunk" but rather to be pleasantly "pompette." The novel follows the pair's groggy adventures as they attend a Nazi ball, smoke hash, and befriend an eclectic cross-section of Amsterdam characters. Eva has strong opinions: Milan Kundera is the most beautiful man alive, the "smartest use of an airline ticket was to buy something light that gained weight the further north you went," and more alcohol is the "best remedy for the sad syndrome others liked to refer to as a hangover." But Hermann accepts it all, having vowed that his abiding mission is "to make Mother happy during the last days of her life." As his mother's illness takes its inevitable course, Hermann gains a deeper appreciation for the pleasures and purpose of life. Sigur%C3%B0sson's novel successfully straddles the line between impious gallows humor and a heartfelt depiction of a son's love for his mother. (Aug.)