Talking Location With …. Sarah Holding: ICELAND

28th April 2026

#TalkingLocationWith …. Sarah Holding: Iceland

Road to True North, which came out in September 2025, is a moody coming of age novel set in Iceland, a country I’ve been fascinated by for years. My first visit there was back in 2003 for a weekend break to see the AirWaves music festival with my husband. We both fell in love with the rawness of the landscapes and the warmth of the people and have returned there many times since.

In summer 2015 we planned a two-week family road trip to Iceland, with the intention of circumnavigating the main island, and exploring the far north and east. It was this experience that inspired me to set a novel in Iceland, featuring a father and son on a roadtrip with a similar itinerary but an altogether different purpose and vibe.

My protagonist Olly is eighteen and thoroughly depressed. He’s failed his end of year exams and hasn’t got into university, he’s still pining for his first love Sol, a relationship that resulted in a police warning, and his Dad thinks it’s a good idea to take him to Iceland on a work trip to try and fix him. Sean, the father, is a photographer specialising in seismic landscapes, and has a seismic temper brought on by his excessive drinking. It slowly becomes apparent during their trip that it’s Sean that needs fixing, not Olly.

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I wanted to write a young adult novel that lets you inside both their heads, and switches between their different points of view. Both characters are struggling to communicate their feelings and have their needs met, and neither of them really knows or understands the other. Tess, Olly’s mother and Sean’s wife, who stays in London, is in contact with both of them, and when they run into Anton, one of her exes, on the trip, things start to unravel. There are things bubbling up beneath the surface of all their relationships, which start to erupt after Sean pays his former boss Sigga a visit in Husavik.

When they arrive in Akureyri, Olly is left to fend for himself one evening and goes along to an open mic session where he plucks up courage to sing a song he and Sol wrote together. He makes friends with two Icelanders and they invite him to go with them to meet Grimur, a music producer they both know. In blizzard conditions, their plan is abruptly thwarted and meanwhile Sean has been fired and feeling vengeful.

I’ve shown Iceland in all its colours in Road to True North, from the monochrome beaches of Vik, to the turquoise lagoon at Jokulsarlon, to the sulphurous rocks around Myvatn, and of course there is a key moment when Olly experiences a life-changing technicolour aurora. But the most dramatic landscape of all is the mysterious Icelandic interior, the remote Highlands, where the novel’s climax takes place.

Having skirted around Iceland and each other, the reader finally gets an insight into the heart of the matter, an event which not everyone survives.

For all the scenic inner and outer drama, this story is understated as Olly becomes the humble, level-headed adult he was destined to turn into. The outcome of the story is somewhat more challenging for his dad, and by the time they both return to Reykjavik, the tables have turned.

Last summer I returned to Reykjavik for a pre-launch trip, and experienced some unexpected traumatic events myself when I fell and broke my nose and elbow. Our friends took good care of me, however, and we spent Culture Day together enjoying the wealth of Icelandic raw talent. I’m a big fan of Icelandic bands and music, which together with the art scene also features in the book, as well as the strange lunar landscapes that have inspired many filmmakers to shoot epic movie scenes in Iceland.

My favourite character is little Roman, Sigga’s six-year-old grandson, who manages to bond with Olly through their shared love of astronauts at a time when he’s feeling really down.

Although the book deals with some heavy current issues like mental health, sexual identity, alcoholism and infidelity, it is ultimately the power of friendship, connection to nature, and the ability of both to inspire creativity that leaves the story on a hopeful note. For anyone planning a trip to Iceland, whether it’s during the dark winter or the midnight sun of midsummer, my top tip would be, think big, take your compass, and don’t underestimate it! Iceland rocks.

Sarah Holding 

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