Mother of Light – by Elin de Ruyters – independent book review – Historical Fiction (Iceland)

NOTE: I was given early access to MOTHER OF LIGHT and am writing this review voluntarily. Thank you BookSirens and Yifa Press. Publication Date: July 9, 2023

I feel like I have just time traveled to Iceland and glimpsed life there in the 1880s. MOTHER OF LIGHT is a vivid novel about a newly trained midwife settling and then surviving in a hostile and remote area. Awarded four stars on Goodreads. 

Sólveig (pronounced soul-vay), is an independent young woman with no family left. Having just completed a three-month training as a midwife, she is ready to build a new life.

Sólveig is sent to a remote Icelandic village where there is only an elderly woman available to support women in childbirth. Sólveig takes up residence in a household shared by two families and begins the work of establishing her practice. Many are suspicious of newcomers, especially YOUNG women. But by working slowly, she is determined to earn their trust. 

It’s a hard life. Food is often scarce. Few are literate. And change is hard. Nevertheless, human beings still fall in love and marry. Children are born and families survive great suffering and grief. The novel gave me an opportunity to learn how people live in such isolated areas:

• How everyone must depend on one another,

• How desolate winters are with all-day darkness,

• How much work and risk was involved in fishing and storing the supplies needed to survive the long, cold months of winter, 

• How diseases we don’t even think about (measles) could decimate a village, 

• And, what a luxury it was to have care from a trained medical professional. 

There’s plenty of explicit OB/GYN drama in this young midwife’s first year – including breech births, too frequent pregnancies (there is no birth control, of course), stillbirths, and spousal abuse. Add to that the dangers faced in everyday life, where every fishing expedition means risking death. 

MOTHER OF LIGHT is this Australian writer Elin de Ruyter’s first novel, inspired by her own great-great grandmother’s story. It is well-researched and I found it both enjoyable and promising. But there were, to me, a few rookie missteps. A few places with excessive description. I disappointingly was able to guess correctly about three major plot twists long before they occurred. And I found the concluding chapter a bit heavy-handed, as though de Ruyter didn’t quite trust us readers to figure out the “moral” of her story. But I definitely recommend it.

More about the author, Elin de Ruyters.

Postscript: I can’t complete this review without speaking to my own thoughts about Iceland, which in part drew me to this book. It is my favorite place to visit and the most beautiful country I’ve seen. Because Iceland is so sparsely populated there are limitless unspoiled landscapes that illustrate not just the beauty of the natural world but also how the world must have looked before humans arrived. Glaciers, volcanoes, black sand beaches, and spectacular waterfalls everywhere. You can literally travel for hours and not see another car or any other sign of human existence. It’s also a living geology lesson where you can see every phase of how nature transforms barren volcanic rock into sparse lichens and mosses, then into grasses, plants and wildflowers, and finally into vast, pristine meadows. 

I’ve now visited four times and offer a few photos for those who may be interested. 

Iceland – June 2021

Iceland – Summer 2020

Iceland – Winter 2019

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