Book Review: Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

Reviewed by Sharron Arksey

Jonas Ebaneser is in a midlife crisis and when he discovers that his daughter is not biologically his, he hits bottom and decides to commit suicide. But killing himself in Iceland is unthinkable; he does not want his daughter, biological or not, to be the one to find his body.

So begins Hotel Silence, written by novelist, playwright, poet, and art history professor Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and published in 2016. It was released in English translation in 2018.

Jonas Ebaneser divests himself of his belongings and moves to an unnamed city in an unnamed country, which the reader assumes to be in Eastern Europe. He reasons that he can kill himself there in anonymity and that the act may be as simple as stepping on a landmine.

He checks into Hotel Silence, a damaged building which is being run by two young people struggling to repair the facility and keep the business going. Jonas has brought his toolbox with him, thinking he might need it in his suicide project, and he has the skills to complete the needed repairs. The two young people readily accept his offer of assistance.

Word spreads throughout the city that there is an Icelander in town who does repairs and Jonas Ebeneser is suddenly much in demand.

Hotel Silence is a redemption story and some readers have criticized it for being too predictable. But the quality of the writing lifts it to another level; this is excellent literary fiction. It is a simple story, but it is complex and multi-layered as simply told stories often are.

The book won the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2016, the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 2018 and Prix de Page.

In 2024, a French-language movie version was released. The film, a Canadian/Swiss production, is available on Prime Video (via Crave TV) and Apple TV.

The book can be purchased at Amazon (both .com and .ca), Barnes and Noble in the U.S.A. and Indigo in Canada.