A Parish Chronicle

From Iceland’s Nobel laureate, an essayistic tale of the unlikely miracles that return a church—fated to disappear over & again throughout time—to the same hillside

1882. In the still of morning, Ólafur sharpens his scythe on the bone-dry pavestones that separate his farmhouse from the rest of Mosfell Valley, where life revolves around sheep. The sound of his hammer rings out like a high-pitched bell over the tussocky fields. Across the valley, perched on a hill that hoards more sunshine tha...