Book Review: Book is preoccupied with the business of bringing new life into the world

A storm is approaching the city and Animal Life follows Dómhildur as she prepares herself and her neighbours for the incoming tempest, alongside sorting through the disparate manuscripts and sharing snippets and ruminations from their contents.

Dómhildur, and before her, her grandaunt, comes from a long line of midwives. Much of the book is preoccupied with the business of bringing new life into the world - the freshness and perfection of a baby compared to the faults people develop as they grow into adults and make their way through life.

Dómhildur’s father was an undertaker, who also came from a long line in that profession, and these two bookends of a life frame the whole story.

This is an unusual narrative - often a stream of consciousness floating from one subject to another without clear links between them.

But at its heart this book is about nothing less than the search for the meaning of life, made all the more compelling because Ólafsdóttir resists any neat conclusions.

Her granduant’s manuscripts are in turn wise, illuminating, trivial, and confusing.

We catch a glimpse of a universal, wonderful truth, only to be whisked away by problems with the flat’s electrics. It’s all a bit like, you know, life.

I read this book for the book club at Juno Books, Sheffield’s own friendly local feminist and queer community bookshop.

It was a brilliant choice - the sort of book that sparks very different responses in different people.

So much is left open to interpretation - the richness and miscellany in the writing offers many versions of the story and many elements to focus on depending on what resonates with each individual.

This is a strangely mesmerising and comforting book. Go with it, and allow this unconventional tale to carry you along its winding way.