Red Dog Farm

A novel by
Nathaniel Ian Miller
Little, Brown and Company, 2025

A different kind of Icelandic farm story.

The protagonist, Orri, is adrift in life, attending university in Reykjavík, when he returns to the farm he grew up on in the Borganes peninsula. A minor crisis extends his stay and the story develops from there. Author Miller is not Icelandic, but he does a fair job in describing the challenges of trying to make a living farming in a sub-artic region. Orri is also adrift with developing any personal relationships, and is somewhat estranged from his parents; these facts also become part of the plot. There is a subtheme of alienation (his grandmother is a Lithuanian Jew) and the story of how she came to Iceland after World War II figures in as well.

Orri’s only friend is Rúna, a lesbian from a nearby farm, and in his efforts to help her find a mate, he discovers Mihan, a young woman of Filipino ancestry who lives in Akureyri, and she and Orri become long-distance lovers.

Despite all this, the ‘meat’ of the story is the farm, its animals, and the endless labor required to make it all work, dealing with lots of mud, blood, shit and piss. If reading about those things doesn’t appeal to you, you might want to skip this book.

The writing is straightforward; don’t expect any Laxness-like prose from Miller. There was an occasional whiff of cultural appropriation, but not enough to prevent me from finishing the book.

A marginal recommendation.