The Boy Who Cut the Elf Grass

About this book

Iceland, 1783. On the last day of May, ten-year-old Kári Thorsteinsson takes his father's scythe to the one patch of grass on the farm that nobody may ever cut, the round green circle that his grandmother says belongs to the hidden folk. Eight days later the earth splits open beyond the highlands. Fire pours down the river gorge, the sun turns the colour of a copper coin, and a blue haze settles over the fields. Kári knows exactly whose fault it is. A year later, far from home on a windswept farm by the sea, with his father gone to the winter fishing and food running out, Kári keeps every old rule there is, sure that if he obeys enough he can pay his debt. But what if the rules are the danger?