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Summary
Summary
"A young woman obsessed with uncovering a family secret is drawn into the strange and magical history, language and landscape of Iceland." Freya Morris grows up in a typical American suburb - but every summer, she enters another realm entirely when she visits her relatives in Gimli, a tiny village in Canada settled by Icelandic immigrants. Here she falls under the spell of her troubled but charming aunt Birdie, who thrills her with stories of exotic Norse goddesses, moody Viking bards, and the life of her late grandfather, the most famous poet of "New Iceland." But when Birdie tricks Freya into a terrifying scandal, Freya turns her back on everything Icelandic and anything that reminds her of the past. She is living an anonymous, bleak existence in Manhattan when she finally returns to Gimli for the first time in two decades - and stumbles upon a long concealed family secret. As Freya becomes increasingly obsessed with unraveling her family's tangled story, she finds herself delving into the very memories she has worked so hard to forget. When the clues dry up in Gimli, Freya journeys to Iceland itself. On this rugged island of vast lava fields and immense glaciers, Freya's quest comes to its unsettling conclusion. A beautifully-written debut novel that deftly weaves together Iceland's distinctive history, ancient mythology, reverence for language, and passion for genealogy, The Tricking of Freya is a powerful exploration of kinship, loss and redemption.
Author Notes
CHRISTINA SUNLEY grew up hearing stories about her Icelandic grandparents and the massive emigration that followed a 19th century volcanic eruption. She has visited Iceland for extended stays to research and write this novel. Her short fiction has appeared in literary journals, and she has taught memoir writing and fiction at universities. She now lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sunley's debut novel is an intricate family travelogue, based in the present of Icelandic-Canadian life and the half-mythical world of her grandparents' Iceland. Sunley gives narrative reins to the granddaughter of a famous Icelandic poet, young Freya, whose memoir begins with the summer she first meets her mom's family in the Icelandic-Canadian village of Gimli. The bitter tension Freya discovers between her sensible mother and her unpredictable aunt goes deeper than personality differences, apparently tied to Aunt Birdie's role as family history keeper, her insistence that the children learn their Icelandic heritage, Norse mythology and language: "Icelandic words are tricksters. Acrobats. Masters of disguise. Shape-shifters." Equally capricious are Sunley's characters who, over 20 years of family storms and mental illnesses, pull Freya across the globe, landing her more than once in beautiful, beguiling Iceland itself. This grand coming-of-age-novel boasts a dynamic set of characters and a rich bank of cultural and personal lore, making this dark, cold family tale a surprisingly lush experience. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
High-spirited and precocious Freya is the only child of her late-in-life, widowed mother, who waits until Freya is a coltish seven to finally return to Manitoba, Canada, to visit her mother and her sister, wild and beautiful Birdie. Freya's grandfather was a revered poet, and her family is proud of their Icelandic heritage, especially Birdie, who insists that her niece learn Icelandic and memorize the ancient sagas, a mission that turns disastrous. Freya tells the story of her strange, nearly catastrophic girlhood years later, an act that liberates her from a lonely and smothering life. This wounded daughter of a land of the midnight sun recounts a journey to Iceland as dramatic, dangerous, and mysterious as any ancient epic adventure, and retraces her ardent quest for the truth about a staggering family secret. Steeped in the highly symbolic mythology, complex language, and otherworldly landscape of Iceland, and the little-known story of the nineteenth-century Icelandic diaspora, Sunley's astonishingly accomplished debut is a bewitching tale of volcanic emotions, cultural inheritance, family sorrows, mental illness, and life-altering discoveries.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Freya Morris is writing to her cousin. She doesn't know who or where she is, just that she exists, or so Freya believes. Descending from a long line of poets tracing back to Iceland, Freya is recounting her life story to share some day with her missing relative. Based on an offhand comment that Freya overheard, it appears that her aunt Birdie, a nickname for Ingibjorg, gave birth at some point. Freya and her mother, Birdie's sister, live in Connecticut, and every summer they visit Gimli, a small Canadian town originally settled by Icelanders. Freya and her family are descendants of Olafur, Skald Nyja Islands, or the Poet of New Iceland. Words and poetry are very important in the Icelandic culture, so Freya's family is well respected in Gimli. As with all families, though, all is not perfect. After a freak accident, Freya is torn between a vibrant but troubled aunt and her mother, who needs and loves her. Sunley's first novel moves among the United States, Canada, and Iceland as it recounts the tale of a fascinating family. Readers learn about a little-known culture as they follow the twists and turns of Freya and Birdie through the past into the present day. For fans of first novels and readers of family sagas; recommended for public libraries.-Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
