The rest of Sunday was lovely; we went to the Selfoss community center, which was swarming with kids and pale-skinned Icelanders...

It's nearing midnight and I'm sitting in the quiet kitchen, jazz on my laptop, water cascading off the roof; I can see boughs of trees...

I have that kind of soul and body and mind restlessness where I keep erasing this first sentence because I want to start with a bang, to...