✨ In this novel, we follow the struggle of Hekla, a female writer in ’60s Iceland: she moves from a rural city to Reykjavik with only her manuscript, a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses, and a typewriter in the attempt to coronate her dream to become an established writer. However, she will be faced with a world dominated by men who only seem to acknowledge her beauty rather than see her as a professional writer. Her only support in this world will be her childhood friend, John, while they both will try to navigate the world and overcome the patriarchy: Hekla as a professional writer, John as a queer man.

✨ Let’s start by saying I am not a big reader of nordic authors, and I know how this will sound cliché, but the few books that I read by a nordic author always felt a little « cold » to me. 

Nonetheless, Miss Iceland slowly grew on me, mostly thanks to its emotionally touching characters and storylines. I found myself rooting for both Hekla and John, even though I knew from the start how it would end: not because the story is predictable, but because there was no other end possible to this story, and it is not the fault of the author, but of the patriarchy that it portrays so very well.

✨ Without spoiling you the end of this story, I was left wondering: how many stories, and how much art, have we been robbed of by the patriarchy, misogyny, and racism? Surely, too much.