Description

From the author of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven comes a beautifully written and atmospheric novel about family ties, new friendships, and finding love, as a young man searches for meaning and direction on an Icelandic cattle farm.

Growing up on his family’s modest cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has learned to cherish life’s simple pleasures: the joyful leap of a newborn calf, birds returning with song after a harsh winter, and the faithful companionship of a loyal (or at least reasonably loyal) farm dog. Yet despite his appreciation for these quiet joys, Orri feels the pull of a bigger world. He eventually decides to leave home, his practical Lithuanian Jewish mother, and his quiet, reserved father—known only as Pabbi—to attend university in Reykjavík.

Pabbi has witnessed firsthand life’s harsh rhythms of birth and death, creation and destruction. Haunted by vivid memories of a devastating volcanic eruption and worn down by years of hard, struggling farm labor, Pabbi finds himself exhausted and depressed after Orri departs for university. Meanwhile, Orri, feeling restless and dissatisfied in Reykjavík, returns home after just one semester.

For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to become a partner in running the family farm. Despite their very different outlooks, father and son must learn how to cooperate and bridge their emotional distance. At the same time, Orri meets Mihan, a thoughtful and spirited part-time student he encounters online. Slowly, their budding connection grows stronger through texts, phone conversations, and shared confidences. By year’s end, Orri is faced with choices that will affect the shape of his future: Should he return to university, or stay and commit himself wholly to the farm and family life? And if he does, what might a future with Mihan look like—presuming she is even interested?

With warmth, humor, and genuine tenderness, Nathaniel Ian Miller’s Red Dog Farm explores the complexities of the bonds between family members, the friendships that sustain us, and the joys and anxieties of romantic connection. Above all, it is a heartfelt story about finding—or building—a true home together.