The Greenhouse

One of the most beautiful and enthralling books I have read in a very long time. Growing up in Iceland, Lobbi lived with his parents and his handicapped twin brother and worked in his mother's greenhouse. She had developed a rose of rare beauty called the eight-petal rose. When Lobbi is 20 two events shake up his life—he shares a brief intimacy with the girlfriend of one of his friends during which she becomes pregnant, and his beloved mother is killed in a car wreck. Anna, the mother of his daughter, names her Flora but makes no effort to involve Lobbi in their life. Lobbi, unhappy and desolate, takes a job at a monastery in a remote mountain village that was once famous for its gardens which have now fallen into disrepair.Lobbi travels to the village in an unnamed location and finds a land that is strange indeed. The people there are kind but they speak their own language—a language that is dying—and there are no children that he can see. He begins work at the monastery and meets a monk who is a movie fan and who invites him to join him for his nightly movie watching. Just as Lobbi settles into a routine, he receives a letter from Anna telling him she has to go away for a month and wants to know if he will care for his now nine-month-old daughter.The writing is lovely, the people are touching, and the descriptions of this mysterious land are positively enchanting. A lovely book.

Never having read a book by an Icelandic author, this novel charmed and moved me in a unique way. The translation into English preserved a delicious flavor of a place and people I knew nothing about but grew to admire.Written in the first person, the story takes a young man from his small town in Iceland to a remote monastery a thousand miles away to work in its famous rose garden, long neglected and in disrepair.But this is so much more about a pure of heart individual touching the lives of so many as his experiences begin to mature him. Mainly through the conduit of his beautiful nine month old daughter, conceived from a casual encounter, suddenly appearing on the scene with the mother for a stay of tentative duration.At the end I longed to remain in this family's life, to find out what happens to them, especially the remarkable child. I was convinced this was written by a man until the author's description at the end. Therefore, this book would appeal to both men and women who enjoy a good human interest story.

I loved the gentle way the author introduced us to the characters whom I fell in love with without judgement . Exploring the enigmas in relationships with such a gentle hand.Just ordered the rest of her oeuvre.

This short novel is told in a first person, stream of consciousness narrative. The narrator, Lobbi, is a young (22) Icelandic man who makes a long journey to tend the once famous rose garden of an isolated monastery that has fallen into disrepair. He leaves behind his 77 year old widowed father and autistic twin brother. Also left behind is a 4 month old daughter, born of a one night stand, that he has seen only once - the day she was born.The voyage to the monastery is fairly uneventful, apart from coming down with appendicitis on the plane and undergoing emergency surgery upon landing. Along the way, Lobbi encounters a couple of young women eager to jump into his bed, a fact to which he is strangely equivocal. He settles in at the monastery, revitalizing the garden by day and spending evenings watching movies and drinking all varieties of alcohol with Father Thomas, who finds answers to all life's questions in his sizable library of old films.The real story, however, begins when Anna, the mother of his daughter, arrives to drop off the baby for a few weeks. Anna decides to stay, and the rest of the book deals with the relationship that develops among Lobbi, Anna and their child.There is a muted quality to the narrative that is inconsistent with what one would expect from a 22 year old male, even one who chooses to be a gardener. Where are the raging hormones, the aggression, the restlessness? Granted, not every young man is a bull in heat, but everything seems a little off. Is he on valium? Does he share a mild form of autism with his twin brother; a touch of asperger's perhaps? After all, this is stream of consciousness, we are inside Lobbi's head, and even mild mannered, nice young men have poorly behaved thoughts from time to time, if not a good deal more often.About halfway through the book I became aware that the author, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, is a woman. This explains the vague inauthenticity of the narrative tone. It is not so much that the musings of Lobbi are not credible, but that so much is missing. I suspect that Olafsdottir was cognizant of the fact that there are vast regions of a young man's thoughts that were inaccessible to her, and she chose (probably wisely) not to go there.One fact that is never revealed is the location of the monastery. We learn that Lobbi is from Iceland only a third of the way through. The only other reference to any place is Lobbi's speculation that some writing on a shirt worn by Anna is Finnish. There are a number of clues, but they don't add up. After the plane ride, Lobbi has a full day's drive to the monastery, through an enormous, old growth forest and across three borders. The monastery is in or near mountains, but also close enough to the sea to have a steady supply of fish and seafood. The inhabitants of the small village in which the monastery is located speak a rare dialect of some unnamed language, and yet there is a halfway decent selection of books published in the dialect available at the local bookstore. Given that Lobbi started off in Iceland, one thinks naturally of Finland or one of the Baltic states. This is impossible, however, because Lobbi tells his father that the days are the same length year round, which means close to the equator. There is also a reference to the warm or mild climate. It is, in short, an imaginary location.Ultimately, the slight dissonance of the narrative does not detract at all from this eminently readable book. The plot is engaging and the writing is top notch (credit must also be given to the translator here). I found myself stealing time to get back to the story. I give it three stars. It deserves three and a half, and I am a tough grader.

This Book is quite well written although not conventional in its language perhaps because it was originally written in a different language and then interpreted. It has a different storyline than in the other books that I’ve read and I’ve read many, and one might find it similar to the book called “ A Man Named Uve”. Don’t be discouraged by the cover of the book which looks like moonscape. The book is not at all like its cover. Based on the storyline, the cover should really be full of life and probably green with the hope of spring.

Roman très agréable à lire. De façon assez surprenante, l'auteur ne situe pas les lieux, géographiquement. Cela renforce l'originalité et la poésie souriante de ce livre que j'ai beaucoup aimé.

Originale soggetto di un ragazzo, diventato padre in seguito ad una storia durata 'un quinto di notte', che lascia l'Islanda, il padre vedovo, un fratello gemello autistico, una figlia neonata e la sua mamma, per riportare agli antichi splendori un antico roseto custodito in un monastero nel continente europeo. Un monaco fuori dagli schemi, amante dei film e dei liquori, insieme alla mamma della sua bambina lo accompagneranno in questa presa di coscienza di sé e di ciò che può creare, a partire dalla figlioletta, creatura straordinaria con proprietà quasi taumaturgiche. Bellissimi i ricordi della madre del ragazzo, che ne rendono un ritratto vivo e reale. Romanzo delicato e poetico, che regala un messaggio positivo.

Es handelt sich um ein sehr unterhaltsames Buch über einen 21-Jährigen Isländer auf der Suche nach seinem Lebensweg - zwischen einem alten Rosengarten und der Liebe zu seiner kleinen Tochter. Ich habe diesen zu Papier gebrachten Road-Movie gerne gelesen.

A beautiful, uplifting book with a golden glow. Stunning descriptions of Icelandic scenery and flora, and of the southern European village and monastery rose garden. If you are in to lava flows, botany, fatherhood, roses, monasteries, or even cookery, or are a bit of a film buff, there should be something here for you. The child, Flora Sol, is absolutely endearing. This is an unusual, but very readable book, and I think that the author is a genius. On a surface level it is very worth while reading, but there is a lot going on below the surface as well. Read it and see.