La veritat sobre la llum

This is the story of a midwife working at a hospital in Reykjavík. She has assisted in around two thousand births and comes from a long line of midwives, a profession passed down through generations in her family. At forty years old, she lives in the apartment of her great-aunt—also a midwife—whose name she shares.

As Christmas approaches, bringing with it Iceland’s brief six-hour days, her apartment becomes a meeting place for an unlikely group of people: her sister, a meteorologist who warns of an approaching storm; an Australian tourist eager to witness the northern lights; a friend searching for furniture; and a melancholic electrician who has just become a father.

But above all, the apartment is filled with the strong words and vivid stories of her great-aunt—tales of midwives crossing frozen mountains to assist in childbirth, of whales acting as midwives for one another, of the superiority of sheep over humans, and, most importantly, of the great journey from darkness to light.

La veritat sobre la llum is a hymn to life and the human pursuit of illumination. A story about the simplicity of being born, dying, and, in between, weathering a few storms.