Hotel Silence tells the story of a middle-aged divorcé, Jónas Ebeneser, as he struggles to find the purpose of life. After learning that his daughter is not his blood, Jónas feels that he has lost his only reason to live. Deciding his fate, he books a plane ticket to an unnamed war-torn country in the process of rebuilding itself. Choosing the Hotel Silence as his final destination, Jónas becomes acquainted with the staff and soon begins helping around the hotel with small repairs. As his generosity and skill spreads past the hotel walls, Jónas starts to wonder if there is more hope and purpose in his seemingly dreary life than he originally thought.

I think the premise of this book is a great one--a man on a journey of self-discovery grappling with what it means to fully exist. The author did a great job of conveying the despair that Jónas was sinking in. However, I had a hard time with how it was written. A lot of it felt almost dreamlike--which was perhaps the point, but it didn't really work for me. I found many of the exchanges of the characters unrealistic and didn't feel particularly attached to anyone. Also, it was an overall depressing read--I guess I was expecting a little more whimsy. Maybe not the best book to start off the New Year with, but I liked where the author was going with it and would recommend it to those who enjoy a more brooding story of self-exploration. I think readers who loved the writing styles of Exit West and/or Dinner at the Center of the Earth would find this right up their alley.

3.5 stars

This is very different from my usual reads. It tells the story of Jónas Ebeneser, a 49 yr. old man who has (in his eyes) lost everything. The last straw was learning from his ex-wife that he’s not the father of his adult daughter. Now living in a tiny flat, he calmly decides there is no reason for him to go on living.

He’s always been a quiet, insular man. After selling his business, his only job these days is visiting his elderly mother. “I don’t know who I am. I’m nothing & I own nothing”. As Jónas considers his options he concludes it would be better for him to end things in a foreign country.

This is the first part of the book & there’s a dreamy, almost surreal feel to it. The prose is poetic & non-linear as Jónas reminisces about his life & the people who have crossed his path. Despite how it may sound, there’s not a drop of self-pity or drama in Jónas’ character. He’s simply reached a point where he has no purpose.

The second part of the story moves to a small village in an unnamed country that is slowly rebuilding after a long war. Jónas takes a room at the Hotel Silence which is decidedly worse for wear. It’s run by a young sister & brother who are determined to bring it back to its former glory. After he makes some small repairs to his own room, he becomes the hotel’s resident handyman. Word spreads quickly & it’s not long before other villagers come knocking.

This section is much more earthbound. As Jónas strolls the safe areas & meets the people, we see firsthand the physical & emotional tolls of war. A man who lived a comfortable if basic life & wants to die is suddenly surrounded by those who have nothing & fight to live. Their stories are poignant & their courage, humbling. And through no effort of his own he forms relationships. With each job, you get the sense he’s also repairing himself as he begins to feel needed & useful again.

This is a book that will appeal to fans of literary fiction, especially if you enjoy that indefinable Scandi vibe. It’s a quiet, introspective read with several running themes. Loss, isolation, self worth, survival, love….all of these are explored through analogy & symbolism. Quotes from well know poets & philosophers take the place of chapter headers. It’s a strange, quirky & ultimately hopeful story about mending what is broken, whether it’s a chair or a human being.

I found it an oddly peaceful, almost mesmerizing read. And in a world where people walk around with faces glued to phones & spend more time in the virtual world, its themes are hauntingly relevant.

This was a thoughtful story, and though slow-paced at times, I enjoyed it. The plot is a bit grim, but ultimately hopeful, and I will keep my eye on this author in the future.

They say it's always darkest before the dawn, but if you're going to get anything out of this potentially divisive read you sure have to let yourself in for some blackness to begin with. Our hero has been divorced, and told his ex's daughter wasn't biologically his, is appalled at his mother drifting into mindless nothing in a care home, and wants only to borrow a gun to shoot himself. Rather than leave a mess for his daughter to stumble on, he takes himself off to an unnamed war-ravaged city, and falls into repairing things piecemeal - both himself, and the hotel, and society.

I certainly found some merit in these pages; it's not a lengthy read, and has a lot of positivity about it come the end. But a third of the way in, when things seemed too bleak, I really did have doubts about continuing - there is little particularly enjoyable about the bloke going through his old diaries, and considering the smallness of his lot. Still, get through that dourness and this short novel can form a lasting picture. It certainly can't be recommended for everyone, however. Three and a half stars.

BROOKE’S REVIEW

This beautifully written book is the winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize - and for good reason. This tightly woven narrative follows the journey of Jónas Ebeneser, who decides to travel to a war-ravaged country to end his life. It’s the very definition of a mid-life crisis, but the story really begins when Jónas begins to find his way at the Hotel Silence.

The characters in this book are wonderfully explored. There’s a juxtaposition between tragedy and hope that makes this novel universally appealing. I’d say this story is Iceland’s mirror to Sweden’s Ove. Fans of Fredrik Backman will enjoy this one.

PRAISE

“Hotel Silence is one of the most human books I’ve read in a while. It reminds me of The Clown by Heinrich Boll. I loved it.” ―Daniel Wallace, author of Extraordinary Adventures and Big Fish

“Jónas Ebeneser leaves his home in Iceland for a city thousands of miles away pummeled by war and violence, now at tentative peace. He brings with him only his toolbox, scars, and grief. While he plans his suicide, the people of the town draw him out with their endless list of broken items to be fixed. With humor and simple, heart-piercing prose, Hotel Silence tells the story of a man and his past, and the community where he finds himself. Ólafsdóttir’s world is full of surprise, sadness, love, and transformation. I didn’t want it to end.” ―Bethany Ball, author of What To Do About The Solomons.

AUTHOR

Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1958, studied art history in Paris and has lectured in the history of art. She has published a poetry collection and several novels, including Butterflies in November, which was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and The Greenhouse, which was translated into twenty-two languages, won the DV Culture Award for Literature, and was a finalist for the Nordic Council Literature Award. She currently lives and works in Reykjavik as the director of the University of Iceland’s Art Museum.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. This book will be released in early January 2018.

I found this book somewhat depressing and odd. I can’t say that I enjoyed it. It is not a cheerful subject. However, it is well written and will no doubt appeal more to other readers.

I felt that for some people this could be a difficult read, however, not having come into contact or near a situation where you find that the only option is ... to book into a hotel silence. I would have to think twice about whether I would actually allow someone to read it. At times I found it sad and upsetting for this and as though the author had experienced the pain themselves?

This is a strangely quiet and surreal novel that makes you feel many things as you read it. I admit to being really sad and a little depressed myself at the start. It’s not the most promising of premises is it? following a suicidal man to nowhere. But once he reaches that hotel, things change and not always in the same way you think.

It’s a story about everyone, how you feel, how life gets in the way and gets you down and how war , whether outside in the world or a powerful emotion deep inside can be an unsettling as each other. Jonas story was sad and it read more like a biography or diary as it’s often presented rather than a novel if that makes sense. I just felt sad and flat reading it but the messages from this novel are clear.The aftermath of war, hopelessness and fear are the same all over the world.Too bleak for me though.

Based on the blurb about Hotel Silence, I was expecting a hopeful, uplifting and humorous look at midlife. This book is something entirely different. Jonas is a suicidal war veteran whose internal self-examination of his life to date is the subject of this book. Dark and brooding.

This is such a quaint story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I kind of wish there had been more. Sometimes you read a book and when it ends there's a tad bit of a letdown because it's over. This is about an older man who has reached a point in his life where he's divorced, his mother has senile dementia, has maybe one friend, one grown child and is very lonely. As he reminisces about his life he decides to end it but wants to go somewhere else so his daughter doesn't find his body. He picks a hotel in a war ravaged city but eventually becomes friends with the inhabitants of both the hotel and the city and starts to rethink his life. I highly recommend this book for those who want to sit back in their big comfy couch and have a reading marathon that is a feel good one.

I had such high hopes for this book. The cover is beautiful, the reviews I'd seen so far had been so positive. I really thought this would be one of those books you devour. However, I was so let down. It was a slow starter, which I allow for because not all books jump into the excitement. By 65%, I was still struggling. By the end I'd wondered why the book was written. I just didn't get it, it didn't go anywhere. I was left underwhelmed p

"The formulation of a scar is a natural part of the biological process, which occurs when a lesion to the skin or other body tissue grows after an accident, illness or surgery. Since the body is unable to create an exact replica of the damaged tissue, the fresh tissue grows with a new texture and properties that differ from the undamaged skin around it."

"Hotel Silence" is a novel about the many faces of pain, the Icelandic title of the book, "ör", translating as "scar". Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's protagonist Jónas is 49 and has just gotten divorced. Upon leaving him, his ex-wife informed Jónas that their 26-year-old daughter Waterlily is not his biological child. Furthermore, he is forced to helplessly witness how his own mother's health is slowly deteriorating. Heartbroken and unhappy about the state of his professional and personal life, Jónas decides to kill himself, but as he does not want his beloved daughter to find his body, he decides to do it abroad and boards a plan to the cheapest last-minute holiday resort he can find.

This is how Jónas ends up in Hotel Silence. While Ólafsdóttir never mentions the country or city where this hotel is located, the descriptions remind me of Ex-Yugoslavia, maybe Croatia, right after the war: Located at the Mediterranian Sea, formerly known for its beautiful landscapes that were often used as film locations (like the plitvicer lakes?), and torn apart by a conflict in which former neighbours turned against each other, the landscapes becoming death traps due to the many landmines.

When Jónas arrives, there is a truce, but still there are no other tourists in the area. As Jónas befriends the siblings running Hotel Silence, he starts helping them with the skills he has as a handyman - and becomes a local celebrity known as "Mister Fix". With all the problems the people he meets are already encountering, how can he burden them with his suicide? And, as it turns out, "in the land of death, there isn't the same urgency to die."

While this is a very straightforward story without any gimmicks, Ólafsdóttir does a great job when it comes to character descriptions and juxtaposing Jónas' pain and loneliness with warm, but never condescending humor. It would be far too easy to simply see this as a tale stating that there are always others who have a worse destiny - rather, the author acknowledges the individual character of the sadness that all of her characters are experiencing.

"Do you remember, Dad, when we lay on our tummies over the frozen lake and looked down at the vegetation below the ice?", Waterlily asks Jónas after she aked him over the phone to come back to Iceland. Auður Ava Olafsdóttir wrote this book about how to melt this ice, or, to put it differently, how to grow and live on with scar tissue. For that, she won the Icelandic Literary Award for Fiction 2017.

"I'm not happy." Jónas Ebeneser tells his mother close to the start of this poignant little gem of a book. He's middle-aged, divorced and his ex-wife has just revealed a secret that has shaken his understanding of his own life so far and his understanding of his life is that he is ready for it to be over. That he says these sad, simple words to a mother no longer present or coherent enough to understand them is heartbreaking and it spurs Jónas on to the decision to die. His main concern is how to spare his daughter the pain of finding his body so he packs an almost-empty case and departs for Hotel Silence in a nameless, recently-war-torn country. In the dilapidated hotel run by a harried brother and sister clinging to hope, amongst the ragged population haunted by violence and lingering landmines Jónas finds that his skills as a handyman are much in demand and that his apparently small contributions, fixing showers and building doors, make a world of difference. He begins to wonder whether his life can mean more, offer more, before it ends.

It's a sad story full of melancholy and loneliness but while it is a little too tender to be described as heartwarming it is affirming and not without hope. As Jónas navigates the scarred streets and their scarred residents Ólafsdóttir explores the nature of different wounds and the residue they leave with real tenderness and sensitivity. It's touching and perceptive and manages to understand and portray a real depth and complexity of feeling with a simplicity of language and form more commonly found in poetry. I wouldn't add or take a thing, Ólafsdóttir has mastered the short form and her delicate economy of word and detail really leaves its mark. Beautiful.

This is an unusual but compelling read. The story of our main character is interspersed with interesting quotes and flashbacks. We follow the story of a man, lost in middle age, much akin to A Man Called Ove. The writing was absolutely superb and I found myself sneaking away from my other duties during the day to read this wonderful book. It was uplifting, touching, and wonderful.

Hotel Silence is a derelict hotel in a bombed-out city that is just emerging from the shadows of war. The population is cowed, there are shortages and the whole area is mined.

Jonas is an Icelander who has had enough of his life. He chooses the Hotel Silence as a place that he can go to where nobody knows him, taking only the tools he needs to end it all. Once he gets there, what he sees starts to give him new perspective, reinforced by memories of home. As the locals start to depend on Jonas, his plans change drastically.

This is a subtle novel about how exposure to the misfortunes of others can allow us to see our own troubles more clearly. It has charm and deals with serious matters with quite a light touch. In fact I wished for a bit more grit and less lightness, given the circumstances being portrayed.

Hotel Silence is about one man's contemplation of suicide. It is the winner of the 2016 Icelandic Literary Prize (out of 5 nominees) and The New York Times describes it as a delightful and heartwarming novel told with grace, insight, and humor.

I had trouble getting through this story as I found it to be the complete opposite of delightful and heartwarming. The tone was bleak and depressing, the story disconnected, and the conversations sparse. Oftentimes the narration appeared to be a jumble of random thoughts which made it very confusing to read. I had to pause frequently and reread many passages. The storyline did pick up once the main character, Jonas, arrived at the hotel. Jonas now had a purpose which was enough for me to keep reading.

The original Icelandic title of this book is "Scars" which is the underlying theme of the whole book. Scars on one's body, emotional scars, and scars left over from war. When Jónas begins to understand the meaning of those scars, he can come to terms with his own existence. A difficult and exhausting read that will not appeal to everyone.

Rating 5/5

What a beautiful story! What a sweet, sad, poignant, hauntingly beautiful story!

I’ve read shorter stories, and I have read epic fantasy, but few will remain with me as ‘Hotel Silence’ will.

This is the story of loss, of self-discovery, of lost souls, of love, of grief.

This is a story of life.

The protagonist Jonas, an Icelandic man, is a rudderless boat lost on a stormy sea. He wife left him a few months ago and her parting shot was to tell him that the daughter he loves so much is not really his.

Depressed and lonely, he wants to end his life just shy of 50. But he wants to spare his daughter the agony of discovering his lifeless body.

So, on a whim, he takes a trip to a desolate, war-ravaged country and checks into the eponymous Hotel Silence, home to the two caretakers, a little boy, another man and one woman.

Slowly, bit by bit, Jonas rediscovers his purpose in life. He rediscovers the innocent, pure little boy he once was. He learns to love, both himself and the people around.

Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir is a truly gifted writer. By design, keeping in with the mood of the story, her writing is devoid of any needless flourishes, but each word beautifully flows into the next, creating a breathtaking mural full of profundity, human suffering, and happiness.

Jonas touches the lives of everyone around him, and everyone around him touches his life, creating a wonderful tapestry of emotions, with a healthy dash of vacant, bleak, hopelessness that is the aftermath of war.

In turns heartrending and uplifting, this is a story like few I have read before, and now I’m eager to read the author’s entire catalogue.

Dear reader, do yourself a favour and pick up this book when you can. You won’t regret it.

I was given a free copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest evaluation.

I really liked this book and liked the hero Jonas. The book is about a man whose life didn't turn out like he had planned. And he is at a transition in his life and he has no idea what to do. So he thinks of ending his life.

He finds that there are other lives out there for us to live. And they may not be ones that we have envisioned.

I read the book in one day and really enjoyed it.

A pleasure to read. Suicide is so hard to talk about. This book tackles many issues in an easy to read page turner. Whilst at Hotel Silence Jonas is able to spend time evaluating his life and the choices that he has made. This book packs a powerful punch. It conveys its message and asks questions. It is just the right length to keep you gripped throughout. This is a must read book.

I remember this author’s previous book ‘Butterflies in November’ with fondness so was delighted to be given the opportunity to read her latest, many thanks to Grove Atlantic via NetGalley.

I can’t better the publisher’s own synopsis of this book. A disillusioned middle-aged man puts his own life into perspective by helping others whose suffering is so much greater than his. A gentle, touching, life-affirming story with some beautiful poetic writing. I enjoyed it very much.