"From winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literary Prize, Auºur Ava âOlafsdâottir, comes a dazzling novel about a family of midwives set in the run-up to Christmas in Iceland. In the days leading up to Christmas, Dâomhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes from a long line of midwives on her mother's side and a long line of undertakers on her father's. She even lives in the apartment that she inherited from her grandaunt, a midwife with a unique reputation for her unconventional methods. As a terrible storm races towards Reykjavâik, Dâomhildur discovers decades worth of letters and manuscripts hidden amongst her grandaunt's clutter. Fielding calls from her anxious meteorologist sister and visits from her curious new neighbor, Dâomhildur escapes into her grandaunt's archive and discovers strange and beautiful reflections on birth, death, and human nature. With her singular warmth and humor, in Animal Life âOlafsdâottir gives us a beguiling novel that comes direct from the depths of an Icelandic winter, full of hope for spring"--