Red Dog Farm - by Nathaniel Ian Miller

Book Synopsis

From the author of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, an atmospheric novel about family, friends, and falling in love, as a young man tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm

Growing up on his family's cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things: the cavorting of a newborn calf, the return of birdsong after a long winter, the steadfast love of a good (or tolerably good) farm dog. But the outer world still beckons, so Orri leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík.

Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. He is pursued by the memory of a volcanic eruption and its aftermath, and so many years of hardscrabble farming have left their mark. Jaded, and no longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, comes home.

For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Despite their conflicting attitudes, Orri and Pabbi must learn to work together. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time--and countless texts and phone calls--their connection deepens. By year's end, Orri must decide whether he wants to--or should--return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she'll have him.

With his signature blend of humor and tenderness, Nathaniel Ian Miller's Red Dog Farm is about the bonds forged and tested between family, friends, and lovers--and the act of building a home, together.

Review Quotes

"Red Dog Farm is, in one sense, about one family, one farm, a herd of cattle, and a first love. But pull back the camera to the full frame of the vast and stunning landscape of Iceland and you'll find yourself spellbound by the broadest of tales, an age-old, worldwide story of what holds us to the people and places we love, and to the ways of life that we choose. You'll care deeply about these people. You'll even care deeply about their cows."--Elizabeth Crook, author of The Madstone

"A cold-winded, gorgeous gust of a book, Red Dog Farm solidifies Nathaniel Ian Miller as one of my favorite writers around. At once raw and exquisite, the book examines the endless complexities of family, the line between contentment and longing, and what happens when you pull a thread of history only to find your future. Its rural Icelandic setting, as wildly beautiful as it is severe, is the perfect framework for a story whose characters simmer with love, even as they struggle to show it. Like any dormant volcano, it's only a matter of time. This is a book to cherish."--David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland and The Electric Kingdom

"A rich coming-of-age tale about the son of a farmer exploring his roots...Miller's earthy realism effectively conveys the toll farming takes, especially on Pabbi. The result is a charming novel of desire and identity in a small community."--Publishers Weekly

"Gritty yet tender... How Orri navigates a path toward fulfillment lies at the core of this heartfelt coming-of-age story... Miller's evocative depiction of life in rural Iceland is note-perfect."--BookPage (starred review)

"It says a good bit about Nathaniel Ian Miller's gifts as a storyteller that he can take what on the surface looks like unpromising material--say, the history of hay-making in Iceland--and turn that straw into narrative gold. Mr. Miller's Red Dog Farm has many examples of such alchemy."--Wall Street Journal

"Miller focuses intently on the daily challenges, drudgery, and beauty found in working the land...In this fascinating character study, Miller gives each character room to breathe and develop as the story builds to a mesmerizing conclusion."--Booklist

"Nathaniel Ian Miller delivers another reverent, deeply moving study of character and place in Red Dog Farm, a novel wrought with staggering truth and grace. Painted in assured prose, vivid in tenderness and humor, each movement of the story feels like a gift of humanity. You'll emerge from the folds of this remote Icelandic farm as if transported from a sacred place where love has been hard-won, purchased with sweat and honor and enormous stores of emotional truth. Red Dog Farm is a book that will change you."--Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon

"Nathaniel Miller's Red Dog Farm is a gorgeous, intimate, elemental (and deadpan funny) novel that renders the bleak, unromantic, and very often unrewarding work of maintaining a small family cattle farm in Iceland. It also portrays--artfully, almost miraculously--how such grueling daily labors lay claim to the loyalty of its young protagonist, Orri, and maybe finally his family, friends, and lover if he can convince them, too, that there is at the heart of such 'grit and misery' a stark and enduring, beautiful and priceless human dignity."--Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers and This Other Eden

"Vivid moments...of friendships, family, and the land itself. An engaging read from start to finish."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About the Author

Nathaniel Ian Miller is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and has been translated into five languages. A former journalist for newspapers in New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin and Montana, he now lives with his family on a farm in Vermont.