Fleshlight

Novel (2024)

A week before Bjossi left Alma, she awoke to a sound outside her bedroom window ... It was as if someone were digging their way out of the darkness behind her closed eyelids.

A gripping and thought-provoking story about family bonds and friendship, space and boundaries, freedom and the abyss, and how people choose to live their lives.

Alma holds a PhD in philosophy and is a former university lecturer, but since she and Bjossi moved back to his childhood village, she has been teaching at the local primary school and dyeing her hair pink. Markus, her thirty-three-year-old stepson, lives with them and spends his days and nights in his room on the computer. One day, a brown package arrives for him in the mail, marking a turning point for all of them.

Cover art: Alexandra Buhl
Published by Mál og menning

“A beautiful and philosophical novel that for this reason could be read ten times or more.”
Jóhannes Ólafsson / RÚV National Radio

“The work is rhythmic, begins at a slow tempo but gradually picks up pace, and in the end all the melodies converge in an impressive crescendo. The narrative at times dances on the border between realism and the fantastical, and the ending is unexpected and magnificent.”
Kristín María Kristinsdóttir / Tímarit Máls og menningar

“Múffa is a subtly humorous and unsettling book where the line between the familiar and the strange is as blurry as the boundary between day and night in the Icelandic midwinter. The ending is likely one of the most thrilling and daring Jónas Reynir has written since he released Krossfiskar.”
Þorvaldur S. Helgason / bokmenntir.is

“The novel is philosophical, existential, and surreal. ... The book may leave the reader with more questions than answers, but Jónas’s polished style creates a truly captivating and mysterious atmosphere.”
Rebekka Sif Stefánsdóttir / Lestrarklefinn