In paperback now!
“Ceaselessly brilliant as an arctic sun, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven illuminates the very nature of human yearning and perseverance.”
—Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son
WHOSE MEMOIRS?
Sven, adrift in Stockholm and dreaming of Arctic adventure, emigrates to the far northern archipelago of Spitsbergen in 1916. But his mining career is quickly derailed when an avalanche buries him, leaving scars that will dictate the course of his life. He learns to hunt and trap under the tutelage of an impatient Finnish socialist, and eventually removes to an isolated fjord in the north of the archipelago to ‘find his silence.’ But the great military nightmares of the age send ripples even as far as that, and Sven is rarely alone. Friends come and go, and he finds an unlikely family in one of the most remote places on earth.
Little, Brown and Company
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And don’t forget the audiobook, narrated by the one and only Ólafur Darri Ólafsson.
Kind words
“Ceaselessly brilliant as an arctic sun, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven illuminates the very nature of human yearning and perseverance. In attempting to inhabit the uninhabitable, one man shows us that no place is inhospitable to the human heart, and in delivering this searing portrait, Nathaniel Ian Miller ascends to the firmament of today’s most exciting young novelists.”
— Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award-winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son and Fortune Smiles
“A kind of Odyssey, complete with dogs worthy of Argos and a few precious human companions, this spare and unusual novel plumbs the dark side of polar narratives. Sven, as mysterious to himself as he is to us, is an unforgettable character.”
— Andrea Barrett, National Book Award–winning author of The Voyage of the Narwhal and Ship Fever
“The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is pure delight. From the first page, I was transported to a world unlike any I’ve experienced or even read about — a bleak and unforgiving landscape where ice bears, subzero temperatures, and Sven’s own worst impulses conspire against him, where loneliness and terror coexist with his growing appreciation for the flinty beauty of life. Only in such a place, I came to understand, could such a solitary man — emotionally stunted, misanthropic, self-pitying, disfigured — discover the bonds of friendship, and find family in a ragtag band of misfits. This novel’s hard-won wisdom, droll humor, and offhanded insights about human nature will pierce you to the core.”
—Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles
“Nathaniel Ian Miller’s vision of the Arctic is one of sharp-toothed beauty and harrowing, clarifying hardship. The men and women who manage to survive the landscape are transformed by the effort, forced to question who they are and who they want to be. Their surprising, rule-breaking lives invite the reader on both a polar adventure and a consideration of what makes our lives worth living.”
— Caitlin Horrocks, author of The Vexations and Life Among the Terranauts
“The magic of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is in its defiance of dark expectations. Sven is a bright but disaffected urban bookworm who moves to one of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, finds dangerous work, suffers a hideous maiming, and hides his appearance by retreating into even greater isolation. And it is here, at the doorway to unmitigated despair, that Nathaniel Ian Miller truly surprises and shines. For all Sven’s damages, his desolation makes each visitor indelible, as into his arctic dystopia traipses a cast of emotionally damaged misfits, estranged family members, military outlaws whose crime is love, an irresistible scrounge of a dog, a gifted trapper of few words and a kind geologist of many, until we are regaled with some of the most convincing portrayals I’ve seen of human beings creating connection and kindnesses despite their brutal circumstances and unhealed wounds.”
— David James Duncan, author of the national bestsellers The River Why and The Brothers K
"Picaresque, gentle and slyly humorous; the glacial beauty of the northern landscape is the backdrop to arresting horrors, concealed passions, and a lifetime of kindnesses — all superbly rendered by Miller: a joy to read."