This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with novelist Nathaniel Ian Miller, author of Red Dog Farm (Little, Brown & Company).
This conversation has been edited for time.
About the book:
Growing up on his family’s cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things: the cavorting of a newborn calf, the return of birdsong after a long winter, the steadfast love of a good (or tolerably good) farm dog. But the outer world still beckons, so Orri leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík.
Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. He is pursued by the memory of a volcanic eruption and its aftermath, and so many years of hardscrabble farming have left their mark. Jaded, and no longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, comes home.
For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Despite their conflicting attitudes, Orri and Pabbi must learn to work together. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time—and countless texts and phone calls—their connection deepens. By year’s end, Orri must decide whether he wants to—or should—return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she’ll have him.
About Nathaniel:
Nathaniel Ian Miller is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and has been translated into five languages. A former journalist for newspapers in New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Montana, he now lives with his family on a farm in Vermont.
Mentioned in this episode:
Olafur Darri Olafsson, the narrator of the Red Dog Farm audiobook (Little, Brown & Company) and an actor on the TV series Severance
The Fraud by Zadie Smith, specifically the audio book read by the author (Penguin Random House; Penguin Audio)
Iceland author Jón Kalman Stefánsson, particularly his book Heaven and Hell, translated by Philip Roughton (Biblioasis)
Nathaniel Ian Miller recommends:
The Fraud by Zadie Smith (Penguin Random House)
Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson and translated by Philip Roughton (Biblioasis)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (HarperCollins)
The Weir and Other Plays by Conor McPherson (Theatre Communications Group)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (Penguin Random House)
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (Picador)
Banyan Moon by Thao Thai (Mariner Books)
This Other Eden by Paul Harding (W. W. Norton & Company)
The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook (Back Bay Books)
The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold (Viking Books)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Red Dog Farm (Little, Brown & Company) and The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven (Back Bay Books) by Nathaniel Ian Miller
The Antidote by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf)
Stoner by John Williams (NYRB Classics)
Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West (Washington Square Press) and Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West (Mariner Books) by Bryce Andrews
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The Write Question team is Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, a literary and community resource for the Bitterroot Valley—providing space to explore, discover, and share passions since 1974. More information can be found at Chapter1Bookstore.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
