A poetic and theatrical ode to resilience, beauty and survival.

Written during the author’s own chemotherapy treatment in the midst of a global pandemic, this debut poetry collection follows a young mother navigating illness, motherhood and mortality with unflinching honesty and unexpected humour. The poems move between diaristic fragments, visceral imagery and dark comedy, from the soundscape of a CT scanner to mothering while “toxic from radiation.” This is not a medical narrative but a celebration of endurance in all its brutality and tenderness, a book about staying alive without being heroic about it.

The collection quickly outgrew the page. In spring 2023 the author premiered a full-scale theatrical adaptation on the main stage of the National Theatre of Iceland, earning three Griman nominations, The Icelandic Performance Awards, including Best Original Script, and has since become a fixture of Pink October, Iceland’s national breast cancer awareness campaign.

Anyone who has faced a crisis, or walked alongside someone who has, will see themselves in these pages. At its heart, it is a story of strength, friendship, and community. A meditation on physical and spiritual endurance. A refusal to sugarcoat suffering, yet also a refusal to let go of joy.

“The poetic narrative approaches, in a truly beautiful and piercing way, the fate of a young mother facing death. It takes the reader to the very edge and back again, and remarkably manages to be a complete page-turner. The reader’s heart and soul expand by several sizes through the raw experience the author conveys in a sharp, striking, deeply personal, and refined way. The fact that the author is also a dancer adds another layer to the work’s awareness of the body’s endurance, resilience, and limits.”
JURY OF THE MAISTJARNAN POETRY PRIZE, WHEN NOMINATED