Advance Praise for Magma
“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”
"Arresting. . . The provocative Icelandic poet’s debut novel . . . urgently explores the challenges and costs of a young woman’s passionate yet toxic relationship." —Time, "Best Books of Summer 2021"
“[P]oet Hjörleifsdóttir'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 . . . The short but powerful entries are masterfully written, showcasing how quickly and quietly an abusive relationship can form in the name of love.” —Booklist
“[U]nsettling . . . an achingly plausible mix of verve and bluntness . . . Throughout, Hjorleifsdottir’s fresh prose disturbingly evokes the young woman’s unmoored state. The burnished micro-chapters form a narrative necklace of gems.” —Publishers Weekly
"Bulleted, candid, first-person prose that parallels the quickness in which women’s lives can become less their own." —Literary Hub
“A compulsive, propulsive debut about a young woman’s exploration of love and sex. In spare, harrowing prose, Thóra Hjörleifsdóttir’s narrator pulls us into the tale of her near undoing and her struggle to find her own value. It is the masterful writer who can shock us and make it ring so true.” —Lily King
“Magma is a luminous and poetic novel unlike any I have ever read. How to describe the slow escalation by which possession becomes control, and power abuse? Thóra Hjörleifsdóttir shows how and the effects are shocking and beautiful, it seethes like lava. She has created a whole new landscape for storytelling.” —John Freeman
“A novel that speaks directly to its present age… An incredibly compelling book.” —Iceland National Radio
