Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World

by Charles Fergus

Little Lava is a farm on the west coast of Iceland. No roads lead to it; the way lies across a lagoon flooded twice a day by the tide. A lava field borders the farm. From the house, views give onto mountains, volcanoes, rugged coast, and the pure Icelandic sky.
In Summer at Little Lava, Charles Fergus recounts how he fixed up an abandoned house on the farm and spent a summer there with his wife and their young son—living day to day in great simplicity, without heat, electricity, running water or other conveniences. Inspired by Henry Beston's classic book The Outermost House—about a year Beston spent living in a cottage on Cape Cod—Fergus sought a place at the outer limits of civilization, and on the coast of Iceland he found it.
As it happened, there was a sudden death in his family—the cruel, pointless murder of his mother at her home in Pennsylvania; and so, in the twilit open spaces of Iceland, Fergus confronted his grief, in the midst of the country’s abundant wildlife and distinctive geology, its history and mythology. The little house on the coast became a refuge as he sought to recover himself and the meaning of his life. "Little Lava was a place where I could pass the days in peace", he tells us, "where I could take the first steps into a future that, I hoped, would not be so dimmed with grief and pain".
Summer at Little Lava is a wise and vigilant book. It touches on Iceland and Icelanders, birds and nature, tragedy and personal loss; in strong, resonant prose, it evokes the strange and compelling landscape of Iceland.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir

289 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

I write a mystery series set in the 1830s in a rough-and-tumble county in backwoods Pennsylvania, where an "accidental" sheriff works to solve crimes while battling his own griefs and travails. My most recent Gideon Stoltz mystery, "Nighthawk's Wing" (Arcade Crimewise 2021), received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It's the sequel to "A Stranger Here Below" (Arcade Crimewise, 2019), which just came out in paperback. I'm currently at work on a third in the series, with the working title "Lay This Body Down." The Gideon Stoltz mysteries take place during the Jacksonian era of American history, when our young nation was flexing its muscles and finding its identity.

Born and raised in central Pennsylvania, I now live on a farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I love to spend time outdoors in all seasons, hiking, snowshoeing, and especially riding horses. I'm married to the writer Nancy Marie Brown. I have written many nature books, and my readers tell me my knowledge of natural history and wildlife helps inform my fiction.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book and another about Iceland right before I left for a trip there, and enjoyed finishing this one after I returned. The author’s descriptions of the geography, birdlife, and people of Iceland were beautifully written. I was surprised to read on another review here that his wife, also a writer, happens to be the author of the other book I’d started before I left!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to read in August. The author recounts his family's summer at a farm on the coast of Iceland, a peaceful time of birds and friends calling, bookended by grief.

[Doug Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though grief can often be unsettling and myopic, this hermetic memoir finds meaning and inspiration in the inevitable passing of the natural world.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

After my amazing 2 week road trip around the island, I've sought out books (and podcasts) on Iceland, including novels, translations of the Sagas, travelogues and then this one, a very pleasant and informative memoir that is focused on the natural history of one particular coastline in central-western Iceland. The author is American and has arranged to spend a summer in a very rustic shack with his wife and young child (in part to recover from the tragic recent death of his mother). There is a ton of information about the local bird life in the area, which pleases me, along with hikes up a volcano, fishing expedition, sea kayaking, etc, each of which create the opportunity for the author to naturalize about his surroundings -- foxes, geology, eagles, sea life. He has a lot of humility and gracefulness in his encountering this foreign land and makes for nice company as a narrator and guide.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Fergus is a great writer :) I almost didn't get this book because I wondered how someone could fill 284 pages about their summer spent in an abandoned farmhouse next to a field of broken lava chunks on the coast of Iceland. Suffice it to say, he did AND it was beautifully descriptive and informative. Iceland is an exciting country when you consider that it's still actively growing through constant volcanic activity. It's also a country that carries reminders of how ancient it is--Mr. Fergus discovered the "Iceland Book of Settlements" and the fact that the farm he was living on is listed as having been settled in the year--are you ready?--800! Throw in his love of birds and the myriad species that flock to Iceland in the summers and I was hooked :)

[Mousy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, evocative and haunting memoir dealing with loss, death, beauty and nature. I loved the authors descriptions of the wildlife and landscapes of his summer in Iceland (although I sometimes got lost in the minutiae of rock formations, Icelandic spellings and connections). His personal journey from desolation to acceptance and feeling ready to return to his home and human contact was inspiring to observe and confirmed all my beliefs about nature as a great healer. Overall I was left with an impression of Iceland as a wild and elemental place, inhabited by kind, strong but gentle people and my longing to visit has increased at least tenfold...

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just returned from spending a couple of days in Iceland, this book appealed to me because of it's rich descriptions of the landscape, animals, people, and history of the country. Charles Ferguson writes about the experience of spending a summer there with his family in a remote house at the edge of a lava field with a humbleness and awe that is refreshing and enjoyable. He also writes about the experience of grieving over the loss of his mother with real honesty and self-awareness.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World by Charles Fergus (North Point Press 1998)(Biography). The same naturalist-writer who wrote Swamp Screamer about Florida cougars takes his family to remotest Iceland for the summer. I like his style and his subject selection. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 1/2010.

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice read. I was excited that the wife was a writer doing a historical novel about Iceland, but then at the end I found out that she was Nancy Marie Brown (of The Far-Traveler), so I guess I don't have anything new to read after all.

Anyway. This was a quiet book, exploring things about death and birds and nature and grief. But still enjoyable. I <3 Iceland.

[Caro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply one of the best bits of nature writing I've ever come across. Beautifully written and marvellously told - a fantastic book. Many thanks, Mr Fergus, for letting us come with you on your summer.

[Nadia]

Really enjoyed this book. Great insight into life in the Icelandic countryside. So accurate, descriptive, and informative. Would like to read it again sometime in the future.

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to Iceland and it's nature.

[Matthew Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading while drinking is quite possibly the best way to immerse yourself in the story that sits before thee. Your inhibitions fall away, the wretched sounds and stench of the city turns to the woods, the clear air and quiet calm that only comes where other people aren't and all that befalls and annoys you on a constant basis disappears. Like sex while high, alcohol and reading are one of those perfect combinations in the world. You can judge me for my choice of mind altering substances and stand stanch in the saying I never did those things but all you are saying in reality is I never truly experienced life as a free person. You chose to live life as expected by society which is crap and limiting. This book was a ride through the human emotions intertwined with nature and nature being the true and only healing source for humans it was a well told memoir on what truly is the useless and catastrophic human condition. You are meant to experience loss and pain, there is no way around it, it will happen time and again and the only true way out is the sweet relief of death. Death cannot come soon enough for a human to release us from this ridiculous and pointless existence that means absolutely nothing on the grandest of scales.....

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected it to be. Instead of being a memoir of a summer spent in Iceland, it was a meditation. The kind of constant drowsy ramble about the day and all the thinking it entailed, which is why I think I enjoyed it so much.