Why did I love this book?
Karitas Untitled is an unforgettable novel about the burden and joy of being an artist. Growing up in early 20th-century Iceland, Karitas is a clever child who sees things others do not: elves, ghosts, and the rainbow embedded in the color black.
Despite crushing poverty, she achieves her dream of attending the Royal College of Art in Copenhagen and marries the most beautiful man she has ever seen—only to learn that the unending labor of being a mother alone while he spends months at sea, leaves little time or energy for art.
But Karitas does not give up. Her story speaks to every woman who struggles to find time for herself—and succeeds.
1 author picked Karitas Untitled as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A portrait of an artist trapped by convention and expectations but longing for the chaos that can set her free.
Growing up on a farm in early twentieth-century rural Iceland, Karitas Jonsdottir, one of six siblings, yearns for a new life. An artist, Karitas has a powerful calling and is determined to never let go of her true being, one unsuited for the conventional. But she is powerless against the fateful turns of real life and all its expectations of women. Pulled back time and again by design and by chance to the Icelandic countryside-as dutiful daughter, loving mother, and…