By Ann Dixon

Special to the Homer Independent Press

I spent much of this summer reading a memoir by one of my very favorite authors, Margaret Atwood. Even at 599 pages, her “Book of Lives” is eminently readable and entertaining, written conversationally in her wry, forthright style, and I highly recommend it to fans of her books, or anyone who likes biographies.

As much as I enjoyed Atwood’s book, I confess that I took breaks to read fiction. One was a Lit Lineup novel, “Red Dog Farm,” by Nathaniel Ian Miller. The primary setting—a struggling cattle farm in rural Iceland—interested me immediately because I recently visited Iceland and because years ago I spent several months on a Swedish dairy farm, where I got to know cows pretty well.

This coming-of-age story centers around Orri, the narrator, who leaves to attend university in Reykjavik. His father, Pabbi, becomes depressed after Orri leaves, though not because Orri is gone. Pabbi wants Orri to find a life less grueling than farming. He seems simply to be worn down by the difficulties and disappointments of his life, which we learn more about as the story progresses. 

Orri tries to adjust but feels out of place and aimless in the city. After the first semester, he returns home, ostensibly to help out, until he can figure out what to do with his life.

As Pabbi shows less and less interest in farming, Orri becomes more involved. 

Orri finds himself increasingly drawn to the farm, as well as to a female college student he meets online. Eventually Orri travels north to meet Mihan and her family. Orri also becomes friends with Ráni, a young woman his age who is trying to resuscitate a neighboring farm, inherited after the death of her alcoholic father.

Two other main characters are Orri’s maternal grandmother, Amma, a Jewish immigrant doctor from Lithuania, and his mother, a professor of psychology at the local college. These four women turn out to be the mainstays of this crew.

Forces for change keep mounting, as Orri dares to hope for a life on the farm with Mihan, despite the odds, and Pabbi faces up to his demons. Like the volcanic eruptions that are part of life in Iceland, change brings both destruction and potential for something new. As Orri says toward the end of the story, “I looked around the table, and I tried not to articulate, even along the outskirts of my mind, the word that you should never say, the feeling you should never feel, because its caprice is infamous. But I said it to myself regardless—lucky— because how often do you get the opportunity?”

You can be lucky to find a copy of “Red Dog Farm” on the library’s Lit Lineup shelf or as an audiobook online with the Libby app. Margaret Atwood’s “Book of Lives” is in the biography section.

The library hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tune in next Sunday morning at this same time for Reading Between the Lines right here on KBBI AM 890, Homer and 88.1 FM, Seward.


Reading Between the Lines is a co-production of KBBI AM 890 and volunteers with the Friends of the Homer Public Library, and airs on KBBI every Sunday at 9:45 a.m. These reviews are reprinted with permission from KBBI and the Friends of the Homer Public Library. Program recordings can be found on the Friends of the Homer Library website.