El corazón del hombre

Synopsis of El corazón del hombre

Set in Iceland at the end of the 19th century, this novel concludes the Boy Trilogy. The story narrates the protagonist's coming of age, the same nameless young man from the first two parts -Between Heaven and Earth and The Sadness of the Angels-, who, immersed in a desolate and implacable microcosm, where geography is a determining element, experiences firsthand the overwhelming force of two impulses of universal scope, that of survival and that of love. The boy has no name, no parents, and no education, but he does have an insatiable thirst for life and a strong attachment to poetry and literature. During the long journey together with the postman Jens, an unexpected spring storm in a remote northwestern fjord of the island causes an avalanche that buries the travelers with terrible consequences. When the boy wakes up, he is cared for by Ólafur, the village doctor, and his wife Steinunn, but what has surely precipitated his return to the world of the living are the red hair and green eyes of the beautiful Álfheiður, who observe him with interest.