FICTION the dip by Örvar Smárason When my fingers started falling off, it became harder and harder to put my shoes on and take them off. After I lost the first two, I switched from laces to Velcro. I used to wear them all the time as a kid, and I’ve always been fascinated by […]
The Little Girl Who Lived on Fish Hearts I once knew a little girl who lived on nothing but fish hearts. She had a bowl
For several months, Sólveig had started every day by playing a little game with herself. She’d wake up exactly 47 seconds before the alarm clock rang, lie completely still in bed, and count down in silence. 47…42, the bus drove past the house; 35, their upstairs neighbour slammed the front door; 21, the nextdoor neighbour […]
The earth’s crust cracked at the poles. Inside, there was nothing but air and the little sun at the core of the planet. When I was a child, you could just barely make out the edge of the North Hole (a lame pun even then) from the northmost tip of Iceland. The only trace of […]
People who travel through space often have poor digestion because their internal clock gets thrown off mid-air. Time travellers such as myself on the other hand, get a ringing in their ears, sometimes long before we even set off. The ringing is constant, a sign of our continual desire to exit the moment. You can […]
You dumped me during a recession. You’d just lost your job at the ad agency. You said you needed to make a radical change in your life, you’d run aground, were stranded, it was over, and yet, you said, you wanted to part on good terms and before I could think whether I wanted to […]
In all Swedish real estate listings, there’s a special note about the property’s distance to water. As if people can only endure a brief amount of time on land before re-immersing themselves. I can picture them, sun-browned and sockless in their shoes, pink sweater arms dangling off the shoulders of slick-haired Swedes, striped skirts whipping […]
Friðgeir Einarsson has published three books; one novel and two short story collections. He has also attracted attention within the Icelandic performing arts scene as an actor, director, and author with performance groups including 16 Lovers and Kriðpleir. His play Club Romantica was premiered at the Reykjavík City Theatre earlier this year and has received praise from both viewers and critics. What It’s Like to Drown first appeared in his book Ég hef séð svona áður (I’ve Seen This Before) in 2018.
It explained a lot when Snæfríður figured out that there were trolls in her apartment. The discomfort she’d felt over the last few months was vague, but real. Respiratory infections. Chronic fatigue. Panic attacks. She went online immediately and looked up an exterminator. The exterminator was more attractive than she’d expected. He had a silver […]
Not long after the doctor’s appointment Arnar was on a diet, so he bought Viking Lite. A tenpack, the small cans, because Arnar was on a diet. He wasn’t asked for his ID at the cash register – Friday, a lot going on. Undoubtedly because my hair’s started to thin, thought Arnar, and then didn’t […]
