{"id":57454,"date":"2013-08-09T17:13:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T21:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=57454"},"modified":"2013-08-09T14:35:53","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T18:35:53","slug":"andri-snaer-magnason-reykjavik-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/09\/andri-snaer-magnason-reykjavik-iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"Andri Sn\u00e6r Magnason, Reykjavik, Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>A series on what writers from around the world see from their windows.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Andri_Magnason.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Andri_Magnason.jpg\" alt=\"Andri_Magnason\" width=\"625\" height=\"395\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-57524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Andri_Magnason.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Andri_Magnason-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is my window. Or my windows\u2014the view from my living room, where I sit and write. Might not seem very inspiring. I wish I could offer green mossy lava, roaring waves, a glacier mountain top. I do have other spaces\u2014in an abandoned powerstation, a favorite fisherman\u2019s cafe by the harbor, a summer house on the arctic circle\u2014but this is my honest view, what I really see most of the days. This house was built in the 1960s when people were fed up with lava and mountains; they were migrating to the growing suburbs to create a new view for themselves. The young couple who dug the foundation with their own hands dreamed of a proper garden on this barren, rocky strip of land. They dreamed of trees, flowers, shelter from the cold northern breeze. What is special depends on where you are, and here, the trees are actually special. They were planted fifty years ago like summer flowers, not expected to live or grow more than a meter. The rhododendron was considered a miracle, not something that could survive a winter. It looks tropical, with Hawaiian-looking pink flowers; Sk\u00fali, the man who built the house and sold it to me half a century later, took special pride in it.<\/p>\n<p>I am not a great gardener. We are thinking of buying an apple tree, though they don\u2019t really thrive in this climate. I would plant it like a flower, not really expect it to grow, and hope for a miracle. &mdash;Andri Sn\u00e6r Magnason<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A series on what writers from around the world see from their windows. This is my window. Or my windows\u2014the view from my living room, where I sit and write. Might not seem very inspiring. I wish I could offer green mossy lava, roaring waves, a glacier mountain top. I do have other spaces\u2014in an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[11570,1822,452,1821,20544],"class_list":["post-57454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-on-the-world","tag-andri-snaer-magnason","tag-iceland","tag-matteo-pericoli","tag-reykjavik","tag-windows-on-the-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Andri Sn\u00e6r Magnason, Reykjavik, Iceland by Matteo Pericoli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 9, 2013 \u2013 A series on what writers from around the world see from their windows. This is my window. 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