Try free for 30 days

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Place of the Heart cover art

Place of the Heart

By: Steinunn Sigurdardottir, Philip Roughton - translator
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $19.49

Buy Now for $19.49

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

Single mother Harpa has always been a misfit. Her physical description is like no other Icelander: So small she self-deprecatingly refers to herself as a dwarf, so dark-skinned she doubts her genetic link to her parents, so strange she nearly believed the children who mistook her for a mythical creature of the forest. Even as an adult, she struggles to make sense of her place in the world.

So when she sees how her teenage daughter, Edda, has suffered since a close friend’s drug overdose, Harpa has no choice but to tear her away from her friends in the city. She enlists the help of a friend and loads her reprobate daughter and their belongings into a pickup truck, setting out on a road trip to Iceland’s bucolic eastern fjords.

As they drive through the starkly beautiful landscape, winding around volcanic peaks, battling fierce windstorms, and forging ahead to a verdant valley, their personal vulnerabilities feel somehow less dangerous. The natural world, with all its contrasts, offers Harpa solace and the chance to reflect on her past in order to open her heart.

©1995 English translation © 2014 by Philip Roughton. (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

  • Winner of the VISA Cultural Prize and the Icelandic National Literature Prize.

More from the same

What listeners say about Place of the Heart

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.