“It is slowly dawning on me that I am, to my own surprise, and against every possible odds, alive.”

So begins the interior reckoning of LinLin, who survives a near-fatal accident and wakes up at an unexpected new beginning. Almost everything she has loved is gone, and she must ask herself what is left to live for. She still has friends who support her, but what surprises her most is the wave of feeling she cannot explain: a hunger for life, anticipation, and a growing infatuation with a stranger she nicknames Veisla.

Springtide follows LinLin, the protagonist of Lavaland, the novel that won Steinunn Sigurdardottir the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2023. Where Lavaland was dark and heavy with grief, this sequel turns the story around completely: the sorrow and tension of the earlier novel give way to joy and unrestrained happiness in the story of a woman who did not die when she was supposed to. Full of humour and wisdom, it is a love story about a second chance, both at life and at love.

“The subject is love in all its varied forms, but also loss, connection and disconnection,
whether with oneself or others, one’s environment and nature. … Steinunn weaves a
nuanced tapestry of text that captivates the reader from the beginning; the story is
touching, and the emotions linger long after the reading is done. What is left unsaid is
often as revealing as what is said, and, as in Steinunn’s previous works, playful irony
mixes with the vivid poetic characteristic of the text.“
THE ICELANDIC LITERARY PRIZE’S JURY 2023 (ON LAVALAND)