On January 31st, Eureka Bookstore hosted Latvian playwright and author Rasa Bugavicute-Pece, and prolific Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón  for a conversation about representing disability in their novels The Boy Who Saw in the Dark and The Blue Fox.  

Rasa Bugavicute-Pece’s 2019 novel The Boy Who Saw In The Dark, follows a young boy living in a house where all the other inhabitants are visually impaired. The book was nominated for the European Union Prize for Literature and won the main Latvian prize for Literature for young readers in 2020. Originally conceived as a play, Bugavicute-Pece spoke about how her personal experiences and relationships helped inform the story.

These experiences helped her strike a tonal balance between depth and levity, and represent disability not as a defining trait or struggle, but a lived reality with which her characters exist, coexist, and develop. The Boy Who Saw In The Dark is performed in theatres through Latvia, and the novel is in the process of being translated into English. 

Sjón’s celebrated 2004 novel, The Blue Fox,  won the Nordic Council Literary prize. It details the hunt of an Arctic fox by a priest. Set in 19th century Iceland, the narrative unfolds in a nonlinear fashion, as we are taken from the hunt, to the story of a naturalist and his charge, a young woman with Down’s Syndrome.

The particular intricacies of the characters and their relationships come to light through the course of the novel, which weaves folklore and mystery with an unflinching look at the bleak realities of the time. Discussing the inhumane conditions that people with Down’s Syndrome were made to suffer, the conversation also highlighted the importance of representation with regards to disability, and the line one must walk between giving voice to underrepresented communities instead of speaking for them.

The discussion was enriched by questions from the audience about prenatal screening practices in Iceland, as pertains to disability, as well as how Bugavi?ute-P?ce’s experiences with her family helped inform her work. Other questions involved the convergence between the religious and the animistic traditions, and bending conceptions of masculinity.

The author’s visit to India is coordinated by Literature Across Frontiersand supported by the Icelandic Literature Centre and the Embassy of Iceland in India, and by Latvian Literature and the Latvian Ministry of Culture.