Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

Butterflies in November Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

* Long-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2014 *

"I can?t remember the last time I was so enchanted by a novel like I am by Butterflies in November. Zany, surprising, full of twists and turns, it left me breathless. I just love this book." —Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and The Obituary Writer

After a day of being dumped—twice—and accidentally killing a goose, a young woman yearns for a tropical vacation far from the chaos of her life. Instead, her plans are wrecked by her best friend?s four-year-old deaf-mute son, thrust into her reluctant care. But when the boy chooses the winning numbers for a lottery ticket, the two of them set off on a road trip across Iceland with a glove compartment stuffed full of their jackpot earnings. Along the way, they encounter black sand beaches, cucumber farms, lava fields, flocks of sheep, an Estonian choir, a falconer, a hitchhiker, and both of her exes desperate for another chance. What begins as a spontaneous adventure will unexpectedly and profoundly change the way she views her past and charts her future.

Butterflies in November is a blackly comic, charming, and uplifting tale of friends and lovers, motherhood, and self-discovery.