The author of the Northshire staff & customer favorite The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven will discuss his newest novel: an atmospheric story about family, friends, and falling in love, as a young man tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm. Miller will be in conversation with Northshire Bookseller Bethany Marsfelder.

“Twenty-one year Orri takes a furlough from college in Reykjavík to help out on his parents’ cattle farm in western Iceland. Nothing is ever easy. As he states in the prologue, “A farmer needs to endure a great many things.” While learning the hard lessons of raising heritage breed livestock in the unforgiving, ever-shifting climate of a volcanic island where there is not a patch of level ground, Orri eventually finds reward in the relentless work. This unplanned time at home deepens his relationship with his parents. His father is border line miserable and set in his ways but learns to work well with his only child. There is romance, heartbreak, and reconciliation. And just like in Miller’s outstanding debut, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, vivid and moving descriptions of the natural world.” — Stan Hynds

“Combining the realities of life on an Icelandic farm with the realities of growing up and coming of age in the modern day, Red Dog Farm is a beautifully rendered portrait of Orri and his family as each member searches for their place, both in the world and with each other. With echoes of James Herriot, this tender novel touches on romantic love, familial love, and a love of nature.” — Bethany Marsfelder

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. Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. He is pursued by the memory of a volcanic eruption and its aftermath, and so many years of hardscrabble farming have left their mark. Jaded, and no longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, comes home. For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Despite their conflicting attitudes, Orri and Pabbi must learn to work together. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time—and countless texts and phone calls—their connection deepens. By year’s end, Orri must decide whether he wants to—or should—return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she’ll have him. With his signature blend of humor and tenderness, Nathaniel Ian Miller’s Red Dog Farm is about the bonds forged and tested between family, friends, and lovers—and the act of building a home, together.

Nathaniel Ian Miller is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and has been translated into five languages. A former journalist for newspapers in New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin and Montana, he now lives with his family on a farm in Vermont.

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