The Journey Home

by Olaf Olafsson

Book Overview

A lyrical and arresting novel by acclaimed Icelandic writer Olaf Olafsson about one woman's redemptive journey home. Disa Jonsdottir has managed an inn for years with her companion, Anthony, in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375420614
• ISBN13: 9780375420610
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A finely wrought novel

Asdis - "Disa" - Jonsdottir and her partner Anthony run a twenty-four room hotel, Ditton Hall, in the Lake District. When Dr Ellis tells Disa that she is terminally ill and has a life expectancy of twelve to eighteen months, she decides to undertake the long journey from England to Iceland where she was born. It is not until the end of the novel that the reader gets to know what brings Disa to undertake her journey home. As she travels memories unfold in her mind about her sister Joroun and her suicide, her brother Kari, her former servant Marilyn, her childhood in Kopasker, her years at the commercial college in Reykjavik where she studied bookkeeping, her first post in London at the Restaurant Boulestin and her first love for Jakob Himmelfarb, "a quest for disappointment" in her eyes. The novel reads like a beautiful diary and the reader has the sense that he is admitted into Disa's intimate world. She is exquisitely and delicately portrayed by the author. We share her happiness, regrets, achievements and failures and the story gracefully weaves between past and present.

A luminous and very rewarding tale

I've never read a character study with such page-turning qualities. I simply could not put this book down. What a subtle, beautifully executed tale. The story of Disa's return to her Icelandic roots is told in snatches of memory and personal reflections. Olafsson's development of her character is just amazing, bringing to mind the works of Alice Munro and David Leavitt. Disa's life unfolds before us in slow, dark strokes. Her illness and her personal journey shed light on why we as humans make some of the choices we do, and how we deal with the consequences of those choices. Very enlightening and extremely engaging.

A timeless journey

Mr. Olafsson weaves a suspenseful tale in undulating phrases of divine language. This darkly poetic novel will enchant you with every page turning. Richly descriptive yet succinct in its glory, the book embraces the reader in a warm cinematic glow.

A LUMINOUS TALE THAT HAUNTS

Olaf Olafsson inhabits two seemingly disparate worlds - he is vice chairman of Time Warner Digital Media in New York, and Iceland's bestselling novelist. While I cannot confirm his business acumen, I can enthusiastically attest to his mastery of the literary arts. The Journey Home, Mr. Olafsson's second novel is a languid yet riveting distillation of a woman's life, an uncommonly beautiful diary of her physical and emotional quest. It is a very human story of one who possesses strengths and frailties, intuition and self-delusion. The author limns these traits sympathetically yet with unflinching candor. Disa Jonsdottir and her younger sister, Joka, enjoy a rather idyllic childhood with their doctor father and demanding mother in 1930s Iceland. As young women Disa and Joka are sent to the Commercial College in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, which is where Disa becomes enthralled with cooking. Contrary to her mother's wishes she goes to England hoping to become a world class cook. However, the rift between Disa and her mother is an estrangement that will haunt. Once in England Disa relishes and is emboldened by her freedom. She falls in love with Jakob, a German Jew, who has just completed his doctoral thesis. The pair give free rein to their passions, escaping to a small cottage in the English countryside. But, despite their thrall, they cannot ignore the distant rumblings that will soon shatter all of Europe. Jakob fears for the safety of his parents, and returns to Germany in an effort to help them escape the Holocaust. But there is no deliverance; he, too, is consigned to Buchenwald. Bereft and alone, Disa returns to Iceland where she takes a position as cook in the home of the wealthy Haraldsson family. There she is challenged to prepare tempting meals for the reclusive mistress of the house and confronts a mysterious adult son, Atli, who has just returned from Germany. No one speaks of Atli's activities in Germany. When Disa uncovers his secret, she derides herself for having been blind. Later, some 20 years after the war she will again be in England where she will live with an old friend, Anthony, a gay squire. The two transform his family home into Ditton Hall, a respected country hotel, where Disa reigns supreme in the kitchen and oversees the hostelry's staff. Although she bridles at any criticism of her culinary art, she has indeed achieved her dream of becoming a first-rate cook. Nonetheless, her emotional life is barren, her relationships with others tenuous as she buries her past, confronting it only when an unforeseeable event compels her to do so. It is then that she embarks on a last journey home to Iceland. With The Journey Home Mr. Olafsson has created a work rich in imagery - the spare, unforgiving scenes of Iceland juxtaposed against the reassuring warmth of England's country summer. The inexorable march across Europe versus a kitchen fragranced by savory comestibles. With Disa he has created a memorable c

A thrill.

For three days what a thrill it has been for me to forget most of my advent chores while reading THE JOURNEY HOME by Ólaf Ólafsson. His sensous descriptions of people and nature in Iceland and in England touched me. In England Dísa thinks back to Kópasker and Reykjavík. In the U.S. I think back to the latter and The Landisles. The author fully developes recognizable, interesting caracters as well as he did in his book OBSOLUTION.I liked his father's ( I danced with him as a teenager) many popular books and I admire his son's many achievements.