There are no butterflies in Iceland

"slowly discover this earth, let go of your perception and all your thoughts, the only thing you feel is this earth, this barren, as yet unknown earth that is here and now, under your fingers and hands and your knees and toes and breasts let this earth soak into your veins, let this earth grow into your hair, awaken the stones that get in your way, make them part of your undiscovered history, let this earth conquer , let this earth lead you, invisible, to its deepest ice clefs, its most hidden caves, its freest wages, which have been and are waiting for millennia, ordinary and customary for all eyes, all touches, except yours, because you are the one who has this the land is to be explored. " A special island. A house. One family. A whole century. The island is barren, beautiful and unpredictable. The starting point of the family’s time is the white house on the shores of the fjord, whose inhabitants fall in love from generation to generation, go to sea, walk the mountains, long, tolerate, dream, wait home, tell stories and salt herring. The life of a small fishing village, like that of the whole island, is defined by the quadrangle of land, water, air and fire. The family saga begins with Jónsi and Gudrun, the builders of the house, and reaches into the 21st century. One of the protagonists of the story is the ocean itself, which gives and takes, connects and separates, and rolls heavy waves in response to questions. The threads of the novel, deeply rooted in the world of Icelandic beliefs, rich in magical and fairy-tale elements, lead all the way to Greek mythology. KÄTLIN KALDMAA (1970) is a poet, prose writer, literary translator and literary critic, President of the Estonian PEN Club, Foreign Secretary of the International PEN Club. So far, he has published four volumes of poetry, three volumes of prose and three children's books. In 2012, he won the Friedebert Tuglas Award for Best Short Story of the Year in his home country. More than eighty literary translations are associated with her name, from authors such as Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith, Michael Ondaatje and Gabriel García Márquez. In her densely woven writings, female destinies unfold in an extremely polished, poetic language. His lyrics are extremely intense, often using symbols and the tools of magical realism. Iceland’s second home, he admits, is where his writing goes best. His works have so far been published in English, Arabic, Finnish, Icelandic and Spanish, among others. In Hungarian, a selection of his short stories entitled Kätlin Kaldmaa Breviary (Estonian Institute - Pluralica) was published in 2017.