“And why would a good-looking woman like Bibi, who has been messing around in foreign countries, want to talk to you? A goldenbrown-skinned woman who walks like a French movie whore. What do you say to a woman like that, what did you girlfriends talk about? Perhaps you started to moan about me, that will have amused her I’m sure, but did you tell her about what you did? Did  you tell her that you killed my television last night? Did you tell her that?”

As Dorothea gets ready to watch the television news on Friday evening, November 12th 1976, the set first catches fire, then expires for ever. During this time it was easier to acquire nuclear weapons in Iceland than a television, there being stringent restrictions on all kinds of imports to the country (even beer was banned in Iceland!), so her husband Richard decides to seek the help of Baldur downstairs, who is a bit of a fixer. Baldur makes no promises, but he borrows Torodd, Dorothea’s and Richard’s son, for a work trip. This trip proves fateful for the whole stairwell.

November 1976 is an amusing story from recent times, recent and yet so remarkably long ago.

Chapters in English available