Nathaniel Ian Miller

From the author of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, an atmospheric novel about family, friends, and falling in love, as a young man tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm Growing up on his family's cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things: the cavorting of a newborn calf, the return of birdsong after a long winter, the steadfast love of a good (or tolerably good) farm dog. But the outer world still beckons, so Orri leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík. Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. He is pursued by the memory of a volcanic eruption and its aftermath, and so many years of hardscrabble farming have left their mark. Jaded, and no longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, comes home. For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Despite their conflicting attitudes, Orri and Pabbi must learn to work together. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time-and countless texts and phone calls-their connection deepens. By year's end, Orri must decide whether he wants to-or should-return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she'll have him. With his signature blend of humor and tenderness, Nathaniel Ian Miller's Red Dog Farm is about the bonds forged and tested between family, friends, and lovers-and the act of building a home, together.

An atmospheric, moving, and droll coming-of-age story about a young man's transformative year on his family's struggling Icelandic cattle farm as he falls in love, discovers a fondness for farming, and yearns to connect with his stoic father, who remains haunted by a tragic past.Growing up on his family's cattle farm in western Iceland has given young Orri an appreciation for the beauty found in the mundanities of pastoral life. Unsure, however, whether he wants to make a life of farming himself, he has left his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn Pabbi, a native Icelander, to attend university in Reykjavík.A survivor of the 1973 Eldfell volcanic eruption and a lifelong farmer, Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. But hardscrabble life on a farm has long lost its charm, and Pabbi falls into a depression not long after Orri leaves for school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless in his first year away, decides to return home and help Pabbi.Over the next year, despite their conflicting attitudes, father and son run the farm together. Orri also experiences the pangs of early love after an unexpected meeting with Mihan, a young Filipino woman from Akureyri. Eventually, the relationship blossoms. By year's end, Orri must face the decision of whether he wants to-and should-return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she'll have him.

On a remote Norwegian archipelago, a man finds his salvation on the remote island of Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle

In this "briskly entertaining" (New York Times Book Review), "transporting and wholly original" (People Magazine) novel, one man banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything. In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements. The teachings of a Finnish fur trapper, along with encouraging letters from his family and a Scottish geologist who befriended him in the mining camp, get him through his first winter. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life. Written with wry humor and in prose as breathtaking as the stark landscape it evokes, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is a testament to the strength of our human bonds, reminding us that even in the most inhospitable conditions on the planet, we are not beyond the reach of love. #1 Indie Next PickFinalist for the Vermont Book AwardLonglisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Set in the decades between the two World Wars, the captivating story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything