About the book:
Albertína lives in a strange world. There are no books to be found and in school she only studies interest rates and financial issues. The Internet was banned long before she was born, and the terrible Golden Bank has a strong hold on just about anything. And then the grown-ups start to disappear. One day, Granny Huld appears, bringing along a library and dangerous knowledge.
From Grandmother's Library (an unpublished translation by Brian FitzGibbon):
Silverfish College
Albertina Haraldsdóttir’s first day in the new school was no picnic. In fact, she was lucky to survive it. Got away with a nose bleed, three bruises on her left arm above the elbow and a slight scratch, in addition to a sleeve being ripped off her new duffle coat.
Silverfish College certainly lived up to its reputation. It was a terribly dreary single floor grey-bricked building, enclosed by a basketball pitch and a rusty fence. The building had served as an airport depot in the olden days and behind it there was vast marshland, which some people claimed was full of ogres and monsters. No one ever dared to venture out there. Neither grownups nor children.
Albertina got lost on the way and had almost stumbled into the marshes when a grownup voice yelled after her:
– Where the hell are you going, child? Don’t you know that's out of bounds?
– Cripes, Albertina thought to herself when she finally spotted the school building, they could certainly do with more signs in this town. And people could be a bit friendlier too.
She was slightly late by the time she had found the school and hadn’t even finished pushing the heavy main door when she slipped, and only just about managed to stop herself from falling on her head. The floor was sticky and greasy. The whole school was filthy in fact.
Some time later, when Albertina had been at the school for some days, she was told that the cleaning lady had vanished without a trace a few weeks earlier and no-one had been hired to replace her. Albertina also noticed that a lot of the pupils had studs under their shoes to prevent them from slipping on the corridors. The substitutes that were called in to teach at the school had a rough time. They groped along by grabbing onto the coat hooks on the walls, tripping every second step. The children could be heard tittering behind them, unable to suppress their laughter.
But, of course, Albertina knew nothing about any of this when she arrived on the scene. She was quick to find her name on the big computer screen in the hall. Screens like these had been common in airports in the olden days and this one was probably more than 150 years old.
When Albertina reached her classroom she heard a faint babble of voices coming from the flat screen inside. She decided to try to keep her coat on a bit longer, pulled her hood over her head and gently knocked on the door several times. Then she cautiously opened it.
The first thing she saw was a gangling fellow, who was probably the teacher, with a ringlet and aquiline nose slouched over a desk, one cheek resting in his cupped hand. He was fiddling with the set up menu of the old fashioned teaching machine. Suddenly looking up, he focused his bloodshot eyes on her as she approached the desk. Before she got a chance to introduce herself, he yelped like a timid poodle:
– This is Albertina Haraldsdóttir. She’s new in the class. I expect you all to give her a warm welcome. Absolutely. She’s used to being well treated, since she lives in Golden Cage, the new building by the harbour. The one for refined rich people.
His voice was as cold as his grey feline eyes.
This man should have been anything but a teacher in life, Albertina thought to herself. If child murderer had been a recognised profession he would have undoubtedly gone for that.
The aquiline nosed man dragged himself to his feet and pointed towards an empty seat in the back row. Albertina scanned the desks under her hood as she moved between the rows. She estimated about thirty heads, but few of them looked up or showed her any interest. Very ordinary kids. The classroom itself was pretty much like most of the other classrooms she had seen. The advertising screens on all the walls beamed pictures of candy, soda drinks and new cars. When she reached the very last row, she noticed that the screen behind her was showing an ad for Golden Cage, the estate she lived on. She involuntarily pulled a face.
Her neighbour in the back row showed no sign of acknowledgement as she sat down as quietly as possible. He was a terribly feeble looking boy with gaudy white hair that pointed in all directions. Albertina felt she knew him from somewhere. But where? Heavy bags hung under the bulging eyes of his snow-white face. His mouth turned into a tiny angry little line every time he cleared his nose. She decided to keep a low profile. That freak could carry on sulking if he wanted to. She’d be better advised to concentrate on what the teacher was saying. Or… what was he saying?
The teacher muttered something incomprehensible and wearily hoisted himself to his feet at his desk, causing his chair to screech. Albertina sensed a hint of sarcasm in the way he looked at the class as he fiddled with the buttons on the teaching machine.
– Right then, children. You better have your wits about you now or you’ll never survive the rat race!
He pressed a button on top of the machine. An uncomfortable screech was heard. The machine obviously hadn’t been used for some time. As elsewhere, the latest trend here was to teach with high frequency sound waves that worked on the various sectors of the children’s brains to varying degrees and boosted their capacity to learn. Punishment was dealt in the form of electric shocks. This was yet another maths lesson, as so often before. Endless maths. The teacher pointed randomly at a pupil and asked:
– What’s three-thousand-eight-hundred-and-fifty multiplied by eighteen-hundred-and-seven?
If the pupil didn’t give the right answer, the teacher would press a small red button on the teaching machine. That released a slight electric current of 25 volts into the air, straight from a special transmitter to the pupil’s head. Then the teacher asked other questions. If the answer was wrong again, the current would be increased by a further 25 volts and eventually all the way up to 150 volts, which was the absolute maximum.
The teacher very rarely questioned the same pupil more than once in the same lesson, but it could happen if he was in a poor mood or just having a bad day.
The sums were slightly easier than the ones Albertina was used to in her old school, much to her relief. Maths had never been her strongest subject. Maybe she wouldn’t get quite as many headaches this winter then. She gazed around the classroom and noticed that no-one had any schoolbags any more than usual. Why had she thought that things would be any different in this school? Albertina heaved a heavy sigh. Maybe her dad was right. She should have been born a hundred years ago when schools were full of books and children were even taught to write. She shut her eyes a moment and tried to imagine herself lying in the garden at home in Sóltún. She could feel the straws tickling her throat as the smell of freshly cut grass seeped into her nostrils. She had never imagined that she would miss lying there so much. By now, they had no doubt turned all that to asphalt and painted white strips for the car park.
The school bell abruptly shook her out of her day dream. The class was over. Albertina attempted to break the ice by asking the white-haired sulky puss for his name.
– Leave me alone, stupid git, spluttered the white-haired boy. I’m not a bloody social worker!
Albertina was so startled by this abrupt reaction that she was still slightly shaken when she staggered out into the corridor. She therefore forgot to watch her step and was nearly trampled on the floor when the swarm of children stampeded out of the room. She stepped right on the heel of someone who was in front of her, stumbled and managed to grab onto a coat on the clothes hook which prevented her from falling flat on her face. As she did this, something flew out of a coat and crashed on the floor with a smash. Metal tubes, bundles of wire and other junk scattered across the dirty floor. She automatically bent over it and had just grabbed the bundle of wires when a shadow loomed over her.
– Leave that alone! The white haired boy hissed. Watch out!
It was ripped out of her hand and she felt something strike her face. Then everything went black.
When Albertina came to her face felt all numb. The white-haired boy was leaning right over her. He was so concentrated on his task that his jaw drooped, revealing a row of teeth that flashed like a shark’s. This mouth hadn’t seen a toothbrush for a long time and poor Albertina got a blast of his terrible breath.
She winced, almost retching.
– Steady! The white-haired boy grunted. For shit sake!
– What happened? Albertina squalled.
– Quiet, said the boy. Don’t move! You’ve got blood and goo all over you.
He wiped her face with a wet cold cloth which he occasionally dipped under a tap of cold running water. They were in the toilets.
– Óli the moran knocked you out, said the boy. I tried warning you. Aren’t you used to looking at where you’re going? You trampled on Óli’s heel like a demented elephant. Boom boom. The white-haired boy stood up and imitated an elephant trudging on the floor. He did it quite well, even though he was skinny and looked much more like a hyena than an elephant.
– Knocked me out? Are you joking? said Albertina, trying to sound as tough as she could, as she sat up.
– Yeah, man! He threw a studded boot at your face. I was straight behind you and didn’t see it coming. Your trunk spurted blood like a waterfall! That guy likes his deeds to speak louder than his words, you might say! Coz he’s fucking dumb.
The white-haired boy spoke fast and Albertina had never heard anyone curse as much. But despite the blabber, greasy white hair and the dirty bright clothes that he was wearing, Albertina got the feeling that he couldn’t be all bad. She even thought she could discern a smile hovering on his lips. Or a grin at least.
– My name is Wally, he said, clearing his nose. The kids here call me Wally the virus, don’t ask me why.
Albertina scrutinised the boy’s helpless expression and listened to him clear his throat. She didn’t have to ask him why he was nicknamed virus.
– And sorry for being nasty to you earlier, Wally added. New pupils aren’t allowed to address older pupils until they’re spoken to. Not on the first day at any rate. But what’s a small sweet girl like you doing here anyway? Aren’t you a little bit too innocent for us? Already almost killed in the first break? Ha ha! So you live on the Golden Cage estate, do you?
– Yeah …
– What’s that like?
– Just… I dunno. Awful.
The white-haired boy grinned. – Thought as much, he said.
– And it isn’t true what the teacher was saying. We’re not rich.
– I know that, said Wally. Of course, you’re not rich. They always do that. Try to stir divisions with that kind of crap. If you think living in Golden Cage is awful, you’ll hate Silverfish College even more. Welcome to hell on earth!
This was the first time that Albertina noticed that one of the sleeves on her new coat had been completely ripped off. Just hung on a few threads.
– It got torn when I dragged you into the toilets. Óli would have beaten you up. Luckily Ragnheidur, the schoolmaster, stepped in and the poor guy is in detention again. Óli isn’t such a bad guy really, you know. He’s just a total retard.
Albertina nodded. – What were those tubes? She asked.
– Tubes?
– The tubes and stuff that fell on the ground just before Óli laid into me.
Wally looked at her gravely, stopped washing her face, grabbed the sink and hoisted himself to his feet.
– What tubes? He grunted.
– You must have seen them. Full of rubbish.
– Listen to me, Abba. I can call you Abba, right?
Albertina nodded and he continued: – In this school, at Silverfish, kids aren’t supposed to poke their noses into stuff that doesn’t concern them. Óli is no choir boy, if that’s what you think. Don’t mess with him, okay?
Albertina muttered her assent as she carefully groped her swollen nose. She obviously needed to to tread carefully in this school.
Very carefully.
