The Editorial Booknook: Books on health

Photos: bjartur-verold.is, forlagid.is amazon.com

Translation: Victoria Bakshina

Icelandic books:

PTSD ljóð með áfallastreituröskun (PTSD poems with post-traumatic stress disorder) by Ragnheiður Guðmundsdóttir came out before Christmas. This poetry collection is the reconciliation of the author with cancer that she was diagnosed with several years ago and the post-traumatic stress that followed it. The poems are uniquely beautiful, sincere but by the same token, stabbing. This is the first poetry book by Ragnheiður, who is, by the way, a student at the University. It is abundantly clear that this is the author who will make a difference and is worth watching closely.

Gangverk (Mechanism) by Þorvaldur Sigurbjörn Helgason attracted well-deserved attention when it came out in the spring of 2019. In the book Þorvaldur describes the time he went into cardiac arrest at a school lesson aged 15. The poems describe his internal and external circumstances, and reading is uniquely interesting. The closure of Þorvaldur with this traumatic event is sincere and hits home in a poetry book that is unsurpassed in the treatment of material and is a good addition to the poetry lovers reading list.

 Foreign books:

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets first came out in 2013 and went unrecognized. The book is classified as young adult literature but, as it often happens with good childrens and young adult books, it sits well with an adult reader. The book focuses on a young man who imagines he has a psychologist, whom he talks to about the challenges of the day. The imagined psychologist is a dove the size of a human, which provides the boy, James, empathy and understanding. If readers read and liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets will surely appeal to them. A film based on the book came out in 2021 and received positive feedback.

The novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation by the American author Ottessa Moshfegh came out in 2018 and attracted considerable attention, because it was both bold and innovative. The book recalls the attempts of a young woman to escape the lesions of the world by lying in a year-long hibernation. The year is 2000, the place - New York City: the heroine of the book is a beautiful and successful young woman who works in an art gallery, lives on the inheritance of her parents alone in a luxury apartment on The Upper East Side in Manhattan. What could possibly go wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is an exciting and daring book that surprises the reader. A film based on the book is in the works.