Hotel Silence

Starred review from November 1, 2017

Operated by sister and brother May and Fifi, two young people caring for their aunt's business, Hotel Silence sits amid the rubble of war in an unnamed country. The hotel is newly reopened, and the siblings are happy to have a few guests. Among them is Jonas Ebeneser, "on vacation" from his home in Iceland and traveling light; he packed just one change of clothes and a toolbox. Jonas, divorced and deeply depressed, hopes to step on a landmine or find some other way to end his life far from home, where his daughter cannot find his body. May and Fifi soon discover that Jonas has much-needed handyman skills and set him to repairing broken doors, faulty plumbing, and more. Word spreads quickly, and soon Jonas is fixing things for the remaining townspeople. Jonas's relationships, particularly with May, blossom into genuine friendship, and soon he is not just fixer but "fixed." VERDICT Witty, soulful, lighthearted, and tender, this charming and immersive new work from the award-winning author of Butterflies in November is a great choice for book discussion groups.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017

Operated by sister and brother May and Fifi, two young people caring for their aunt's business, Hotel Silence sits amid the rubble of war in an unnamed country. The hotel is newly reopened, and the siblings are happy to have a few guests. Among them is Jonas Ebeneser, "on vacation" from his home in Iceland and traveling light; he packed just one change of clothes and a toolbox. Jonas, divorced and deeply depressed, hopes to step on a landmine or find some other way to end his life far from home, where his daughter cannot find his body. May and Fifi soon discover that Jonas has much-needed handyman skills and set him to repairing broken doors, faulty plumbing, and more. Word spreads quickly, and soon Jonas is fixing things for the remaining townspeople. Jonas's relationships, particularly with May, blossom into genuine friendship, and soon he is not just fixer but "fixed." VERDICT Witty, soulful, lighthearted, and tender, this charming and immersive new work from the award-winning author of Butterflies in November is a great choice for book discussion groups.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 11, 2017
Olafsdottir’s charming novel of second chances and fateful journeys is filled with quiet hope. Icelandic handyman Jonas has decided to commit suicide after learning he is not his daughter’s biological father. To avoid his daughter discovering his body, he travels to Hotel Silence, a recently reopened hotel in an unnamed war-ravaged country, to hang himself. His skimpy luggage, with only the clothes on his back and a handful of tools draws the suspicion of the siblings, May and Fifi, who run the hotel, and the two other guests, an aging movie star and a shifty man with opaque but nefarious intentions. Jonas almost passively starts minor repairs on the hotel and wanders the city with blank nonchalance, disregarding warnings about hidden land mines. Jonas’s stoic implacability endears him to May as she recounts her gruesome traumas and he shows kindness to her young son. Soon, other city residents are calling on him for repairs, and Jonas’s suicidal intentions lift, even if he retains the same cool disconnection. Olafsdottir (Butterflies in November) captures the aimlessness of survivors and the long shadow of war in spare prose. The story moves at a consistently engaging pace, and Olafsdottir’s blend of sly humor and bleak realities makes for a life-affirming tale without any treacle.

December 15, 2017
A middle-aged man travels from Iceland to an unnamed, war-torn country with plans of committing suicide.Jonas Ebeneser has recently discovered that his adult daughter, Waterlily, is not his biological child. Considering his recently dissolved marriage and his lack of biological connection to his daughter, Jonas decides he has little left to live for. He begins planning his suicide but gets held up by logistics. First, he worries that disposing of his personal belongings will prove emotionally taxing for his daughter, so he begins emptying his home of his personal effects. Next, he concludes that his daughter should not be the one to find his body. So instead of shooting himself at home, Jonas decides to simply go away, disappear. He buys a plane ticket to a country that has just emerged from a devastating war on its own soil. Reserving a room at the mysterious Hotel Silence, he brings only one change of clothes, his diaries, and a tool box, in case affixing a hook to the ceiling might hasten his journey toward death. Ravaged by land mines, violence, and loss, the area surrounding Hotel Silence is a wasteland of dust and desperation. Jonas can't help but notice the hotel's glaring state of disrepair, and he begins using his tools to make small improvements, tightening a screw here, unclogging water pipes there. Word of Jonas' handy nature spreads quickly, and he is suddenly being asked by all manner of folk to makes repairs for them in their homes and places of business around town. With so many men lost in the recent war, Jonas is treated as though he's the only handyman in the entire country. People can't get enough of him, and Jonas begins to wonder if he has found a new home. Told in surreal, almost Kafkaesque prose, Olafsdottir's (Butterflies in November, 2014, etc.) stunning story is about one man's unexpected reawakening.An engaging and surprising tale of transformation, told in almost allegorical form, perfect for fans of second chances and evolving perspectives.

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December 1, 2017
The Hotel Silence was supposed to be the end of the road for Jonas. His life had fallen apart after his divorce with the discovery that his daughter is not biologically his. And so he leaves his motherwar-obsessed and slowly losing her grasp on reality in a nursing homeand his philosophical neighborwith his twin interests in cars and the plight of women in the worldto travel to a small town in an unnamed, war-torn country as one of the only guests in the hotel. His plan was to kill himself somewhere far away, so his body wouldn't be discovered by someone he knew. The problem with his plan, though, is that he soon gets to know the people at the hotelthe brother and sister trying to bring new life to the decimated place, the sister's young son so scarred by the war that he can only color in black and red, and the other guests, all drawn to the country for different reasons. Hotel Silence is a beautifully spare and insightful tale of redemption.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)