3.5/5

3.5/5

“But what is youth if not dreaming that you can do something new in this world?”

This was a beautiful story, albeit one without a strong central plot. But it’s so reflective of Icelandic life and gives any reader a window into a different culture. The universal themes like the love a son has for his father and following in the footsteps of someone he respects as well as following the glimmers of life that are so fleeting in adulthood was truly heartwarming.

This is a pretty slow-paced book and doesn’t have the most action until the last 50 ish pages but it was a beautiful read nonetheless.

Overall, I think if you are interested in a quiet and comfy read, this book might do you well. If you aren’t necessarily a patient person, I think this could still be a good read for you. My only warnings for this piece would be to one, take your time with this piece and appreciate the views, and maybe avoid this piece if you are sensitive to occasionally severe mental health issues as it is a semi common topic brought up in this novel.

Enjoyable book about farming and everything it entails. It does not glorify farming but tells the harsh realities and the hard work. Orri has to make difficult choices when deciding to stay on the farm or return to college. He sees the toll the farm has on his parents. Being set in Iceland is a bonus!

The author gives us a coming of age story that dumps the reader into life on the farm. It is certainly eye opening at times and helps one respect the hard work and choices young people must make. I would recommend this book to most people as it flows easily and keeps one's interest. Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this book.

I tried to read this book several times and I even tried to listen to it in case the audio would be a different experience and alas this book is not for me. I do think it's interesting and especially if you're into farming and the midwest, I think you will find this book to be very interesting.

with gratitude to netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced copy.

<b>The Short of It:</b>

What is home to you?

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

Growing up on his family’s cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things: the cavorting of a newborn calf, the return of birdsong after a long winter, the steadfast love of a good (or tolerably good) farm dog. But the outer world still beckons, so Orri leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík. ~the publisher

Living on a cattle ranch in Iceland has its challenges. These are quiet people with hopes and dreams but also people desperately aware of the life they’ve been given. Orri leaves for university but returns when his parents begin to display signs of needing help.

There are beloved ranch animals lost to the elements. Early morning hay stacking on mornings so cold that their equipment won’t start. While working the land, Orri and Pabbi talk about life and reflect on choices they’ve made. His mother interjects with her observations on life. Clearly, this s a family that loves each other but there are revelations and they each choose a direction to go which eventually leads to a very dark moment.

I was mesmerized by this book. There’s not a lot of action. It’s contemplative and reflective but I enjoy these types of reads sometimes. The writing is just beautiful. I was on that ranch with these characters. This is definitely one of those armchair traveler reads. The harshness of the ranch was comforting to me. It was consistent and genuine.

Highly recommend.

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

A gentle story of life on an Icelandic farm; far from idealic! Hard work and conditions, a father and son must work together to keep the farm alive.

Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller follows Orri who comes home to his family’s remote, rock-filled, Icelandic farm to help his farmer father while taking a hiatus from college in Reykjavik. Orri’s mother, the daughter of a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant doctor, teaches at the small, nearby college and has never liked farm life. As in Miller’s magnum opus The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, a dog and the land matter. Rykug, the farm dog, loves Mihan, the woman a Orri falls for online. Rúna, a lesbian neighbor, adds expertise and support. Orri and the women characters in particular are uniquely clever, wry, fascinating, and well drawn making this gritty, coming-of-age tale of muck and farm disasters a compelling read.

Because who in their right mind–I’m looking at you, Vikings–would take their first steps onto our steaming black rock and think farmland? from From Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller

I was a fan of Nathaniel Ian Miller’s debut novel The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven and was pleased to be able to read his newest novel, Red Dog Farm.

I learned more than I ever wanted to know about farming in Iceland. Well, I never wanted to know anything about farming in Iceland. And yet, Miller’s vivid and detailed descriptions of haying and calving made me think of James Herriot: somehow it becomes immensely interesting and entertaining, because a master writer who loves his subject is spinning the story.

The main character is Orri, a young man wavering between college and staying on the farm to help his father. He finds joy in the challenge and the beauty of farm life. His mother’s people were Jewish Lithuania refugees. She works in town as a teacher. His father was born on an Icelandic volcanic island.

When Orri finds his soulmate online he is torn: does he finish his education, move to be with her, or stay on the farm he loves?

“But what is youth if not dreaming that you can do something new in this world,” he thinks, full aware that alteration “is written into our rocks and our bones.”

It is a joyous novel, full of love and hope.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Some books take their time, and Red Dog Farm is one of them. It’s quiet, steady, and unassuming, but by the end, it leaves a real impact. Orri’s return to his family’s struggling farm in Iceland isn’t a dramatic turning point—just a slow realization of what it means to belong somewhere, even when you’re not sure you want to.
Nathaniel Ian Miller writes with a kind of patience that matches the setting. The farm work, the brutal weather, the day-to-day grind—it all feels real without being overwhelming. The relationships are the heart of the book. Orri and his parents are written with such care, their quiet struggles saying more than any big speech ever could. The friendships and love interests build naturally, without forced drama, which makes them feel all the more genuine.
The pacing is slow, but not in a way that drags. Instead, it gives you time to sit with the characters and their choices. There’s something deeply satisfying about that—watching a story unfold at its own pace instead of rushing to get somewhere. By the end, it felt less like reading a novel and more like stepping into someone’s life for a while.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced copy.

Orri is a teenager in rural Iceland who grew up helping his parents run an always-struggling farm. He goes to Reykjavík for college, but towards the end of the first year he comes home, ostensibly to assist his father but also because he feels lost. Over the next several months, he learns a lot about himself and his family.

Unfortunately, this was another book I just couldn't get into. It didn't help that I was reading this book in the middle of the busiest work period of my year, but I just didn't really want to read this book. I didn't find Orri's interior life very interesting - I would have preferred being inside his mother or father's heads much, much more - and although the farm details initially intrigued me, I got bored quickly and found it meandering. I also have no idea why Orri's love interest enjoyed him as much as she did; I found him pretty whiny, all things considered. It's possible I just wasn't in the head space for this book, and I did find the writing lovely and atmospheric. I'm sure others will love this book - it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. Red Dog Farm follows the life of our main character, Orri, as he is coming into his own in the world and making the decision about whether to remain at university, in the city, or return home to take up farming on his family’s cattle ranch in rural Iceland. The book details a lot of his experience in returning home and what it really means to be a cattle farmer.

I thought this book was okay; it was very detailed in its description of farming, specifically in Iceland, down to the nitty gritty of specific experiences or challenges that the characters encounter. It’s a slow burn read that I felt took some patience to work through, as you come to read more of the larger lessons that the author is conveying throughout this book. I struggled a bit to connect to the book and characters but, that may have just been a personal preference.

I’d recommend this book to fiction fans who enjoy a slow burn lit fic book who and those who enjoy books in this type of setting, as it heavily influences the entire narrative and reading experience.

Sven holds a big spot in my heart, I'm not sure anything could ever live up completely. Red Dog Farm was very good! I loved the setting, the farm, the family....I lost a little bit of interest in the internet dating (which is weird because that's how I met my husband and it all really resonated. Guess I just don't like reading something that so clearly dates the story?) Everything else was great.

This book will always be tied to my airplane crush who asked me what I was reading, to which I answered, “A book about an Icelandic cattle farmer.” He asked what the conflict was and I said “I think farming itself is innately conflict.”

I loved this book! Farm lit is maybe one of my favorite genres (if it is a genre?) I think living in a big city, I often long for a stronger tie to nature and this book writes that so well. It beautifully mirrors relationships with loved ones and relationships with the land and how we are all so very connected even when we might not feel it or want it at times.

I can't thank NetGalley and Little Brown enough for allowing me the privilege of reading Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller. At my age, I felt that I was pretty secure in knowing myself as a reader and then comes along a book like this, like nothing else I've ever read, and it truly make me grateful to be a reader.

Red Dog Farm is set on a farm in Iceland. Orri is struggling to find his footing in the world and decides to leave university and return home to help his father with the farm. There, he is confronted with the cycle of life and death as he learns how to navigate both the life of a farmer and his complicated relationship with his Pabbi.

This has to be one of the most unexpectedly beautiful stories I have ever read. This is a short story, that slowly wraps you up, and gently guides you along. I found Miller's writing to be very vivid in its descriptions, bringing the reader right into the harsh Icelandic landscape and the difficult life of farming - both physical and emotional. I was myself completely immersed in the story, the characters, and the beautifully crafted prose. I can't recommend this book enough.

Sad, sad days for me... I was sorely disappointed by this. I enjoyed The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven pretty well when I read it last year, so I was excited to see what the unfurling of a sophomore outing might afford this writer. Unfortunately, I think Red Dog Farm is not a successful novel. It has many compelling ingredients, chief among them the setting and the relationships between the older characters, Orri's parents and grandmother. The young people, though, are another story -- they alternately feel entirely outdated (what year is it that we're meant to believe 20 year olds communicate so formally over Instagram?) and overly serious. There is no specificity and playfulness in the way Orri interacts with Mihan or Runa, and though I am not Icelandic, I doubt there are many 20 year olds anywhere in the world who behave like this.

I liked the farm material. It feels specific. I recognized much of it as Vermont farm stuff and I wondered a bit how an Icelander would respond to the novel's many, many, many aphoristic "in Iceland we" statements. Despite that, the sections about particular animals, changes of season, and specific physical tasks and events were my favorite parts of the book. Unfortunately, because the novel lacks a strong narrative spine, a lot of these episodes end up feeling inert and informational. It's funny -- I keep reading new books that feel messy and plotless, when here I was thinking there was nothing the publishing industry liked more than tight, propulsive, and urgent. I guess it's reassuring to know that you can write a loosely disjointed series of anecdotes and get off with the word "atmospheric" as the only ding in your blurb.

I really wanted to love this.

I absolutely loved The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, and I was extremely excited to read a new book by the same author.

This story was also about surviving (and even thriving) in a harsh, sometimes lonely landscape. Miller does a wonderful job of bringing this setting to life and highlighting not only the difficulties but also the joys of living in this kind of place. The characters are so well written, and they linger with the reader long after the book is finished. They feel like people I have known.

I learned a lot about Iceland farming and culture, which was actually really fascinating. The plot takes a while to really take off, but that seemed to make perfect sense for this book.

I have already ordered a copy to add to my collection at home, and I cannot wait to hand it to every reader who asks me for a recommendation.

Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller is a highly recommended coming-of-age story set on a struggling cattle farm in Iceland.

Orri returns home early from his first year at university in Reykjavik to help his father, Pappi, on their farm in Bifröst. For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him on the farm. Orri’s Mamma, a professor at the local university, intimates to him that Pappi is depressed. Farming in Iceland is especially challenging and full of muck, mud, rain, sleet, snow, ice, and bitter cold. It also requires special knowledge and experience to keep everything running.

Once home, Orri reconnects with Rúna, a childhood classmate who’s now a farmer. He also begins a relationship online and through phone calls with Mihan, a part-time student. This is an atmospheric novel about family, friends, and falling in love, as a young man tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm and a red dog named Rykug

All the characters are portrayed as realistic individuals with strengths, weaknesses, doubts, secrets, and desires. Orri is a thoughtful and articulate young man who is searching for what he wants to do in life. Iceland itself becomes a character along with the strength of the people living there. Orri grows as a person, but the narrative focuses a great deal on the hard work and trials on an Icelandic farm. The interpersonal relationships between the characters does increase as complications arise late in the novel.

Red Dog Farm is a well-written, very eloquent, quiet, slow-paced and plodding novel about the realistic struggles of farming and raising cattle in Iceland. While I enjoyed many aspects of this descriptive novel, I did become a little weary reading about the numerous struggles on the farm.
Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Not quite a coming-of-age, but a sojourn in the life of young Orri. Twenty years old and searching for a life and location to help him define himself. Over one year, we are witnesses as Orri takes a break from university and goes home to his family farm in western Iceland to help raise cattle and look after the farm for a year. We get a truly captivating look into cattle-farming in Iceland and minutia that separate a thriving farm from a dying one. I was a bit shocked, not just at how much detail we got at each step in the arduous farming process, but how fascinating this story told in granular detail would end up being.

If this were merely a nonfiction book exploring the farming done in these frigid, wet conditions, I still think I would have loved it; but sprinkled on top of it this story, was a fascinating story of family, friendship, and you love. The beautifully crafted characters of Pabbi and Mamma form the backbone of the book while, other younger relationships blossom in ways both meaningful surprising. A book I look forward to revisiting for years to come.

definitely a nice coming of age but a little hard to read at points? the details seemed abit excessive. 4stars. tysm for the arc.

Wonderful Icelandic setting and information, enjoyable characters, excellent writing
Narrator Orri is in his first year at the University of Reykjavik, but when he comes home to the family farm for his two-week March holiday, he realizes how overwhelmed his father “Pabbi” is and takes leave from school to help out. His mother is a Lithuanian Jew who teaches at Bifrost University, and it is clear the farm needs her financial support, but Pabbi also needs help just to get the work done. In addition to working around the farm, Orri takes on other projects, like helping his neighbor Runa acclimate to her newly discovered lesbian identity and exploring a romantic attachment for himself.
The people in the book are well developed and believable (as is the dog Rykug), and it was easy to become immersed in following them . After we get a thorough introduction to their lives and their problems, though, the real complications do not arise until about two thirds of the way through the book.
Although the plot did not take off as soon as anticipated, I picked up a LOT of interesting information in this book! Like most Americans, I know little about Iceland, and I really enjoyed learning more about the country’s geography and history and discovering famous people of Icelandic descent, like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. The Prologue to the book gives a beautifully poetic description of “Iceland’s paradox: The very stubborn nature of the place is change itself.” I discovered interesting things like brennivin, Iceland’s national drink. There were very evocative farming descriptions, including a beautifully sad description of killing a cow. I also picked up a new term, “beard”, a fake heterosexual partner for a gay person so that people will think they are straight.
An early reviewer of Red Dog Farm described it as a “deeply moving study of character and place”. I agree completely, and readers who approach the book with this expectation will find a lot to enjoy. If you are looking for a plot-driven read, though, you might want to save this book for another day.
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Little Brown and Company.