FICTION

By Malcolm Forbes  Special to the Star Tribune

Bad luck definitely comes in threes at the beginning of this fresh and zany novel by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. An unnamed woman living in Reykjavik accidentally runs over a goose and is then dumped by her husband and her lover. A fortuneteller lifts her spirits and piques her curiosity when she informs her that her luck is set to change: "There is a journey here, money and love, even though you can expect some odd twists along the way."

Which is precisely what Ólafsdóttir serves up. Her female protagonist — a "headlong and impetuous" 33-year-old who speaks 11 languages but lacks any maternal instinct — finds herself entrusted with looking after her best friend's 4-year-old deaf-mute son, Tumi. Her initial reluctance is somewhat tempered when the pair scoop the biggest jackpot in the history of the Icelandic lottery. She decides to get away from it all by taking her young charge on a nationwide road trip. With lottery earnings in the glove compartment, three goldfish in the trunk and her cellphone deliberately left behind, she embarks on a madcap adventure that enables her to take stock of where she has come from and illuminates the many paths ahead.

The most memorable moments in on-the-road novels are those that occur off the road. Characters move better when they are stationary. It is during the pit stops in "Butterflies in November" that Ólafsdóttir's woman and child reveal more of themselves. They also get to encounter and hear the stories of a motley bunch of people, from fellow travelers and overnight guests to cucumber farmers, hunters and hoteliers. A touring Estonian male choir keeps cropping up at unexpected junctures. A hitchhiker wants to spend more time out of the car than in. After navigating fjords, lava fields and treacherous ravines, our heroine calculates that she has "successfully crossed forty single-lane bridges, tackled some difficult slopes and become intimately acquainted with three men over a stretch of little more than 300 kilometers."

The characters met along the way are mere cameos, and so the color they exhibit comes as brief flashes. It is Ólafsdóttir's star turn, her candid and quirky protagonist, who creates the largest impact. This is a woman who cooks Christmas dinner in October and takes a summer vacation in winter; a wife who doesn't break down after her husband has reeled off a litany of her shortcomings but instead packs her bags and drives stoically into the twilight. Perhaps inevitably, her journey becomes one of self-discovery, peppered with past recollections and a concerted effort to understand Tumi and the far more complicated adult male.

As its title suggests, "Butterflies in November" is a novel thick with incongruities and out-of-kilter antics. It begins absurdly and ends with a list of recipes connected to the book, including whale steak, sheep's head jelly and "undrinkable coffee." But in between, and at its heart, is a tragicomedy rich in pathos and humor.

"Butterflies in November," by Audur Ava Olafsdottir

Malcolm Forbes has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist and the Daily Beast. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.