The Night Guest

Starred review from November 6, 2023
Knútsdóttir’s surreal and spectacular English-language debut, crisply translated by multiple Hugo award winner Kowal, finds protagonist Iðunn suffering from chronic exhaustion that the medical establishment has, through a combination of neglect and incompetence, failed to treat, leading her to use a number of ersatz self-care solutions. When she wears a step-counting watch to bed one night, she wakes up achy, smelling of the nearby ocean, and having apparently walked more than 40,000 steps in her sleep. As her personal life and relationships crumble due to depression and fatigue, her mysterious nocturnal activities leave her with bizarre wounds. At her wit’s end, Iðunn sets up her phone in the corner of the room to record what she does after she goes to sleep—and what she discovers sets off a horrifying chain of events that threatens every aspect of her waking life. Knútsdóttir’s parenthetical asides and idiosyncratic voice create a queasy sense of vertigo as the story unfolds, and the time the narrative takes to reveal its secrets is well spent on the way to a conclusion at once grotesque and beautiful. This is psychological horror at its finest.