Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was | 
so-soIn a coming-of-age tale of sex and silent cinema, a gay Danish boy escapes the monotony of his isolated life through his imagination - a hallucinatory experience where the line between the silver screen and reality blur against the unforgiving Icelandic backdrop of 1918 when the Spanish Flu ravaged the population leaving a sprawling expense for Máni's imagery to flourish. I felt obtuse at times, which will prompt me to revisit in the near future.
panThis got excellent reviews, but it wasn‘t for me.
pick4 🌟 story of a gay boy in Iceland during the Spanish flu. Read this in one sitting. The writing can be very realistic (graphic at times) and also surrealistic. Loved the final image.
pickAs usual, I didn't read the description first and really enjoyed this. I read it for a books in translation challenge. I didn't anticipate the historic pandemic element! I liked the contrast between Máni's life and silent films. Many stunning lines in this book as well, like the one about the mortician having unexpected coffin orders at home. Content warnings for death, adult-minor sexual relations, and homophobia. #LGBTQ #NovelInVerse
bailedThis is by far the worst book I have ever read. I can tolerate almost anything but not under age s€x!!
pickIt may be short, but this story packs an incisive punch. A snapshot of a particular spot in history, overshadowed by chaos, and full of a desperate love. It was a peculiar juxtaposition to read this as the world struggles with yet another pandemic; as we still struggle with our humanity. It doesn‘t really matter if Máni Steinn is real or is the boy who never was — it is his voice that matters, and that lingers in the heart.
The language is this little book is grand, evocative, immersive, haunting…
Kicking off Pride month with a long-time TBR book and a new-ish Kindle buy…
pickI‘m not sure I fully understood everything in this book, but I know I enjoyed reading it.
About a young boy in Reykjavik in 1918. His trying to trying to get by and make a living.
I wasn‘t prepared for the Spanish flu that lurked in the background and all the talk about pandemics and deaths.
#ReadingEurope2020 Iceland
@BarbaraBB @Librarybelle
pickI finished this short quirky book while sitting in my car during errand stuff this morning.
It takes place in Iceland during the Spanish flu of 1918. Funny I chose to read it now.
Not for the faint of heart- it starts right off with a sex scene featuring the main character, who is a male child prostitute. It‘s incredibly real and I thought it was heart wrenching. It‘s very interesting to read about that time right now. Also #Iceland!
#WeeklyForcast
? Finish the book by Läckberg
? A chapter a day of S&S will finish this week
? Continue reading 2-3 short stories a day from A Manual
? Read a couple of other books. I‘ll also pick up some books at the library tomorrow that I want to get to this week
? Continue the seventh Department Q book
Holly, thank you for the sweet and thoughtful box of goodies! I love the tropical paper (as did Froedrick as you can see!). I‘m excited to read every one of these books, you chose well. I‘ll enjoy writing these notecards and using the cute hedgehog stickers. The lava sticker and Hawaii tabs are great, and I can‘t wait to try the cookies. I like to color when I‘m on the phone with my mom (usually every weekend for an hour or so!), and this book ⬇️
In 1918 most of the person on Iceland were wondering whether the Spanish Flu or war would #HitTheNorth. However, for Máni Steinn there are other things to worry about - most pressing: being queer in a country that doesn‘t accept you.
This short book packs a punch, and I would highly recommend it!
#RedRoseSeptember
pickA really astonishing novella that starts with an epidemic of Spanish Flu in Iceland in 1918 and spins it into a yarn about a lost boy and a then a generation of lost boys nearer the end of the century.
I was lucky enough to meet Sjón last night after seeing him on a panel with novelist David Grossman at the International Writers Festival in Jerusalem. Another amazing evening at the festival.
Soooooooo how does one get in the loop for swaps???
I‘ve only ever done one and I‘m always discovering swaps when it‘s way too late...... sooooo are there any swaps people can point me too or websites or something...... I‘d like to do one here for the new year :)
pickNice and mellow! Just like Iceland.
I‘m traveling to Iceland tomorrow so I thought this would be fitting!
pickA knockout. Beautiful, spare, supple prose: Sjon paints scenes with few brushstrokes; he evokes the Spanish flu w a few surreal pages hovering between life & death; historic events are juxtaposed w intimate scenes in the boy‘s life. Memorable characters: the boy young but resourceful; Sola a superhero in his mind; the old woman wonderfully dry & matter-of-fact but is the heart of the novel. Moving ending.
pickBook two finished for #readathon. This slim little book was over in a wink, but I wouldn‘t have minded staying a bit longer in Sjón‘s Reykjavik of the past. 16 year old Máni Steinn is an outsider, a prostitute and a cinema lover in a time of volcano eruptions and Spanish fly epidemic. It is quiet, Nordic minimalism, and it is quite wonderful ?
so-soThe cetenary of the outbreak of Spanish flu so this seemed approrpiate but I'm not sure I fully 'got' this; i certainly enjoyed parts of it and was completely lost in other parts. Intriguing, I'd say but agree with @rachaich on this one. Bit so-so for me.
so-soHmm. Really not sure how I feel about this book.
I wasn't expecting the opening scene ;) or the content! I liked the spassness of the writing.
It was a very short read and I found this fitted with the dating of the chapters.
I've been waiting to read this since Christmas Eve :)
It was a Christmas Eve gift from him, along with chocolate, as in the Icelandic tradition. Due to book club reads, it's taken me until now to start!
Wow! Christmas Eve gift from amazing boyfriend :) :) :)
pickSjon is an amazing writer. This book is visceral at times and beautifully written throughout.
bailedArresting opening blowjob scene aside, this got boring very quickly. Bailed early due to the lifeless prose. I‘m not sure who to fault,the translator or the author, but this is a 142-page novel that should‘ve been 141 pages shorter.
Do I have your attention? This book sure has mine! This is within the first couple pages…
#QuoteOfTheDay
pickFirst novel by an Icelandic author I've ever read. Follows a 16 year old boy for about 3 months during the Spanish influenza of 1918. For such a short novel, it packs a punch. Excellent. Thanks to Simon @SavidgeReads for recommending this on his booktube channel...excellent read. There's so much more to this book than a short synopsis can do justice.
pick1918 WWI is a mere backdrop trouble to the people of Iceland as the Spanish Flu arrives out of nowhere killing thousands. We see this period through the eyes of 16 year old Mani, a hustler; whose mainly sleeps with men for money/pleasure, or goes to the cinema for escapism. Big world dramas & small life dramas have equal importance in a novella that takes you through 3 of the most pivotal months in both Iceland and Mani's histories. I loved it.
Sometimes I wish I was just a character in someone's book..... my existence would matter more than it does.
Id be a relatable tragic character I'm sure. #igetdepressedaroundmybirthdayforgiveme
"He can't feel a thing apart from the wingbeats where his heart used to be."
pickIsland im Jahre 1918 - ausgehender Krieg, die spanische Grippe und ein 16-jähriger homosexueller Junge, der seine Kinoobsession mit Prostitution finanziert. Skurril und merkwürdig, irgendwie auch faszinierend.
TOKYO BOOKSTORE (KINOKUNIYA) 20% OFF SALE - BOOK 5 of 6
I've had my eye on this little queer-themed novel by Iceland's most renowned novelist, based on the life of his gay uncle or is it gay great uncle.
Some of the best writing I've read in a while. Sjón is a master of the image and short fiction form.
pickSolid 3.5/5 for me. It both benefits and suffers from its brevity. But it does have some nice prose. If you want to read it, its best that you know little about the story itself. It's a little bit surreal, a little bit metaphor, a little bit Bildungsroman. But that's all you're getting from me.
pickI really loved this book. It was so abstract and beautifully written. I loved how fevers and dreams were written and I could not put it down! There was one character I felt a little irrelevant but I loved it overall. The ending especially was wonderful.
Full review will be on my blog soon: sprinkledwithwords.wordpress.com & goodreads (same name!) x #arc
Las Vegas: Doing it right with bookstore tourism!
And now the boy lives in the movies. When not spooling them into himself through his eyes, he is replaying them in his mind.
Sleeping, he dreams variations on the films, in which the web of incident is interwoven with strands from his own life.
pickQueer+Iceland+epidemic= basically my fever dream novel.
I just finished this beautiful work! I found it the night I found myself alone for the first evening a couple weeks back and decided I must buy, and I connected so much with mani so much about certain things.
I'm visiting both of my beloved indi stores today. The first is Pages in Kensington, my original foray into the independent book store culture. As the area marches on and forward, ever changing, this place holds fast. The wood floors creak as you slowly scan shelves, the stairs groan as you scan the artwork and authors that call this place home, and the second floor sighs with your inability to decide on a book. The whole store envelopes you.
pickThis trim novel covers serious ground. It tells the story of a young, queer man working as a hustler in 1918 Reykjavik. He walks the line of insider/outsider in this closed community as Iceland deals with the end of the Great War, a volcanic eruption, political separation from Denmark, and Spanish influenza. Máni spends most of his free time at the cinema, escaping the confines of both his body and time while the world crashes around him.
bailed☹️ that is all.
My next novel to read, thankfully considerably shorter than Murakami.
pickThis is the first book that I have read by Sjon.
A novella set in the end of WW1 in Iceland and also through the Spanish Flu.
Mani Steinn our protagonist is 16 years old. Gay. Movie goer. Who comes of age during this period and through him we see a side of the Icelandic society that's less well knows to others.
The novella does contain graphic homosexual sex scenes that are quiet long in some chapters regarding this is a short book.
Enjoying this ARC, very sexually graphic first chapter but don't let that stop you, it's good so far.
Not a brand new title, but Twitter's just brought it to my attention: a 2014 novel about a gay teenager in 1918 Iceland! Oh my!
