Butterflies In November

“One of the things that characterizes a bad relationship is when people start feeling an obligation to have a child together.” So says the unnamed narrator of Ólafsdótti’s (The Greenhouse) novel, a woman dumped twice in the same day: first by her lover, because she will not commit to him, and then by her husband, because she will not commit to domestic life—particularly the idea of having children. Luck answers her call for change when she wins the lottery. However, as soon as she plans an isolated vacation in a faraway bungalow, she ends up accepting temporary responsibility for her friend’s child, a four-year-old deaf-mute boy. She and the boy set off on a road trip through Iceland where they kill various animals; pass by a lava field, a cucumber farm, and a Wild West motel; and cross paths with a cow portraitist, an ex-lover, and, maybe, a future lover. Ólafsdótti’s novel is outlandish, yet the protagonist’s conviction is plausible enough for the circumstances to feel authentic. The story explores what freedom really means when romantic and familial bonds are pushed aside. (Dec.)