Magma

(Paperback)

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'Profane, funny, and uncomfortably honest' - Brandon Taylor Twenty-year-old Lilja is in love. He is older and beautiful, a Derrida-quoting intellectual. He is also a serial cheater, gaslighter and narcissist. Lilja will do anything to hold on to him. And so she accepts his deceptions and endures his sexual desires. She rationalizes his toxic behaviour and permits him to cross all her boundaries. In her desperation to be the perfect lover, she finds herself unable to break free from the toxic cycle. And then an unexpected ultimatum: an all-consuming love, or the promise of a life reclaimed. Thora Hjrleifsdttir explores the darkest corners of relationships, capturing an ugly, hidden nature of love. In an era of growing pornification, she deftly illustrates the failings of our culture in recognizing symptoms of cruelty. In visceral, poetic prose, translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich, Magma depicts the unspooling of a tender-hearted young woman aching to love and be loved. 'Mesmerizing . . . Hjsleifsdttir dives deep into the fire-rivers of lust, just how much humiliation we're willing to tolerate in the name of love.' - Oprah Daily

Reviews

Magma is profane, funny, and uncomfortably honest about what happens when we substitute someones image of us for self-knowledge. -- Brandon Taylor * Vulture *
A compulsive, propulsive debut about a young womans exploration of love and sex . . . Thora Hjrleifsdttirs narrator pulls us into the tale of her near undoing and her struggle to find her own value. -- Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers
A luminous and poetic novel . . . How to describe the slow escalation by which possession becomes control, and power abuse [Hjrleifsdttir] has created a whole new landscape for storytelling. -- John Freeman, author of How to Read a Novelist
A novel that speaks directly to its present age . . . An incredibly compelling book * Iceland National Radio *
Bulleted, candid, first-person prose that parallels the quickness in which womens lives can become less their own. * Lit Hub *
Unsettling . . . an achingly plausible mix of verve and bluntness . . . Throughout, Hjrleifsdttir's fresh prose disturbingly evokes the young womans unmoored state. The burnished micro-chapters form a narrative necklace of gems. * Publishers Weekly *
Hjrleifsdttir's heart-wrenching American debut is a raw and empathetic depiction of a woman so subtly manipulated into an abusive relationship that she loses her sense of self and cannot find a way out . . . masterfully written * Booklist *
Arresting . . . [Magma] urgently explores the challenges and costs of a young womans passionate yet toxic relationship. * Time, 'Best Books of Summer 2021' *
Beautifully spare prose . . . A powerful excavation of what can go wrong when you love another. -- Literary Hub, '38 Novels You Need to Read This Summer'
Mesmerizing . . . Hjrleifsdttir dives deep into the fire-rivers of lust, just how much humiliation were willing to tolerate in the name of love. -- Oprah Daily

Author Bio

Thora Hjrleifsdttir has published three poetry collections with her poetry collective, Imposter Poets. She lives in Reykjavik. Magma is her first novel. Meg Matich earned her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University's Creative Writing program. She's received support for her literary translation work from DAAD, the Icelandic Literature Centre (through publishers), PEN, and the Fulbright Commission. She has translated poetry into English and Icelandic for UNESCO, as a representative of Reykjavik UNESCO in Lviv, Ukraine.