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    Magma: A Novel
    Magma: A Novel
    Magma: A Novel
    Ebook119 pages57 minutes

    Magma: A Novel

    By Thora Hjörleifsdóttir

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “The provocative Icelandic poet’s debut novel . . . urgently explores the challenges and costs of a young woman’s passionate yet toxic relationship.” —Time, Best Books of Summer 2021

    As a young university student, Lilja is quickly smitten with the intelligent, beautiful young man from school who quotes Derrida and reads Latin and cooks balanced vegetarian meals. Before she knows it, she’s moved into his cramped apartment, surrounded by sour towels and flat Diet Cokes. As the newfound intimacy of sharing a shower and a bed fuels her desire to please her partner, his subtle abuses continue to mount undetected. Lilja desperately tries to meet his every need, slowly losing her sense of self in the process.

    In her debut novel, Thora Hjörleifsdóttir sheds light on the commonplace undercurrents of violence that so often go undetected in romantic relationships. She deftly illustrates the failings of psychiatric systems in recognizing symptoms of cruelty, and in powerful, poetic prose depicts the unspooling of a tender-hearted woman desperate to love well.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJun 13, 2021
    ISBN9780802157409
    Author

    Thora Hjörleifsdóttir

    Thora Hjörleifsdóttir has published three poetry collections with her poetry collective, Imposter Poets. She lives in Reykjavík. Magma is her first novel.

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    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Iceland is one of the places we all look to as a model of good practice in gender equality, but Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir wants us to see that even in those supposedly ideal conditions, the way heterosexual relationships work is still unbalanced. When a vulnerable woman gets together with a selfish and insensitive man, it is the woman who is likely to get hurt, and then to assume that whatever has gone wrong must be her fault somehow, even when it plainly isn't. The narrator of this stark, stripped-down novel, Lilja, records the development of her relations with her abusive boyfriend in a set of short, diary-like pieces that start out from a view of life that is every bit as romantic as Bridget Jones, but never, even for an instant, remotely funny. We know from the start that Lilja is heading for disaster, but we also know that there is no possible way we can make her believe that, or change course in time to avoid it.Beautiful, very painful writing.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      After some time in Denmark and a long trip to South America, Lilja returns to her home town Reykjavik where she falls for a well-read student. She only works in a café and thus always feels a bit inferior to the intelligent young man. Nevertheless, she quickly moves in with him, knowing that she is not really his girlfriend but rather the person he shares the bed with. She calls him very private as he does not invite her to his family or friends and accepts his conditions in return for his love. Yet, this toxic relationship leaves its scars on her - figuratively on her soul, feeling not good enough for him and therefore accepting other women besides her, and very visibly on her skin when she discovers that cutting can release some stress.Told by a first person narrator, the reader is quite close to Lilja and her thoughts. At first, she seems to be quite some tough and modern young woman who lives her life according to her own ideals and standards. Gradually, however, the downwards spiral is set in motion turning her into a vulnerable and dependent woman who is caught in the negative view of herself. Thora Hjorleifsdottir’s novel “Magma” tackles a complex and difficult issue but makes it easy to understand how some women end up in unhealthy relationships and do not find – or even want - a way out.Lilja, on the one hand, can clearly name how she is being treated. How recklessly he chats with other women online while she is in the same room or even meets them the same day they have a date. She falls for him and accepts being treated like some second rate being, listens to him praising his ex-girlfriends in front of her and even gives in when he asks for things which clearly transgress her boundaries.She believes she deserves being treated like this, she is not pretty enough, not good enough, not clever enough, too sensitive, behaving horribly - simply crazy, a failure. If only she could be the girl he expects her to be, then he could also love her. The narrator does not sound foolish or naive at all, even though it is obvious that this thinking isn’t healthy, we all know these kinds of toxic thoughts which are hard to get rid of even if you are standing with both feet on the ground and having a healthy self-image.At the end of the day, it is simply how women end up being abused and ill-treated by men they believe - despite everything they go through - love them. It starts with small signs until the chain of events once set in motion cannot be stopped anymore and ultimately heads towards a complete disaster.Wonderfully written in a reduced, direct style which makes it easy to follow the line of thoughts and go down with the narrator. More than once, you want to shout at her or take her in your arms, so heart-wrenching it is to see what’s happening without any possibility of interfering.

    Book preview

    Magma - Thora Hjörleifsdóttir

    M

    A

    G

    M

    A

    THÓRA HJÖRLEIFSDÓTTIR

    Translated from the Icelandic by

    Meg Matich

    Black Cat

    New York

    Copyright © 2019 by Thóra Hjörleifsdóttir

    English translation © 2021 by Meg Matich

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or permissions@groveatlantic.com.

    FIRST EDITION

    Published simultaneously in Canada

    Printed in the United States of America

    Originally published in Icelandic in 2019 as Kvika by Forlagid Agency, Reykjavik.

    This book was set in 11-pt. Berling LT by Alpha Composition & Design of Pittsfield, NH

    The book was designed by Norman Tuttle at Alpha Design & Composition

    First Grove Atlantic paperback edition: July 2021

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data available for this title.

    ISBN 978-0-8021-5739-3

    eISBN 978-0-8021-5740-9

    Black Cat

    an imprint of Grove Atlantic

    154 West 14th Street

    New York, NY 10011

    Distributed by Publishers Group West

    groveatlantic.com

    This account is fiction, populated by characters who speak to the realities that women have long lived in silence.

    Shame and isolation thrive in that silence. If it isn’t broken, this story will continue to repeat itself.

    I dedicate this book to those who have spoken out.

    Reykjavik 2007

    Chlamydia

    I didn’t know it would be such a big deal; it’s not like it’s incurable. Nobody’s going to die. We’ll take antibiotics and then, ten days later, it’ll be gone. But now he thinks I’m a total slut. And I must be, since I’ve infected people. But I think he’s being unfair. It shouldn’t matter this much. He acts like I’ve rejected him because I’ve been with other men. We weren’t together when I went to Central America; we’d gone on one date and I hadn’t even slept with him. I was traveling alone, so I slept around because I had nothing better to do and I needed to fill in the gaps. I didn’t know that something would grow between us; in fact, I thought it’d never happen, but I became more and more taken with him as I traveled. He sent me near-constant emails and he was always ready to talk when I went to internet cafés. We just started to connect. When I came home, we clicked; I fell head over heels. He’s beautiful and smart—I don’t know how many books he owns, hundreds at least, and he has this crazy DVD collection.

    But the chlamydia kept eating at him. He wouldn’t stop interrogating me about the other boys. I held back at first. I only told him about one guy, a Norwegian in Cuba, and then I added the next one to the list—followed by the third, the fourth, the fifth, fuck, I can’t be expected to remember everything. I tried to explain that my memory isn’t really that great, but he thinks I’m lying. We were gliding on a smooth current, and now he wants nothing to do with me.

    Bachelors I

    He’s moved into a basement apartment in Vesturbær on the west side of town with a friend who is the very embodiment of a tragic bachelor. His roommate can’t even take care of himself—he’s at least thirty, but he hasn’t learned how to wash his clothes properly. He just leaves his wet clothes in the machine until they dry. The place is a cesspool. Their towels are all sour, and the smell gets pretty pungent when you dry off. And his roommate doesn’t cook, either. On a good day, he might boil a hot dog, but he seems to live on bodega burgers, chocolate chip cookies, and Diet Coke. He’s crazy about Diet Coke; in the morning, he shuffles out of his room in a sloppy navy bathrobe and the first thing he does is swig flat Coke from the bottle. I don’t understand how he can live with this guy. But it’s nice to be able to hang out by ourselves. We aren’t together, but I’m with him all the time.

    Vegetarians

    I think it’s awesome that he’s a vegetarian, too; none of my friends are, and the girls are always teasing me about it. But we’ve banded together in our meat-free lifestyle—plus, he’s a great vegetarian cook, so I’m learning a lot. I’ve started to eat a much more balanced diet. I’ve graduated from grilled cheese and fries. He thinks it’s offensive when

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