The Short Stack Book Club

The Short Stack is a laid-back book club for those who love to read without the page count pressure. We will explore short stories, novellas, and bite-sized non-fiction—all around 200 pages. Perfect for busy schedules, short attention spans, or anyone who just wants to read more without the time commitment. 

This month we will be reading: The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten; translated by Allison McCullough

"In the spirit of Amor Towles and George Saunders, the renowned, bestselling Norwegian author Frode Grytten takes readers on a quietly epic ferry driver Nils Vik’s last route along the fjord, on what he knows will be his last day alive.
 
Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.
 
His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge – from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.
 
Winner of the prestigious Brage Prize, and considered to be Grytten’s long-awaited masterpiece, The Ferryman and His Wife is the story of a quiet, yet utterly profound, life told in reverse. Timeless and absorbing, this is a novel about what we take with us – those moments that might seem insignificant as they happen but prove to be the most meaningful, in the end."

-Goodreads.com

Copies of the book will be available at the Information Desk.