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Please find below and attached Jay D'Arcy's review of <i>The Year of the Puffin</i>.
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Thanks</div>
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Duncan</div>
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Gregory Phipps,<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Year of the Puffin.<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Gregory Phipps’ Year of the Puffin (Atmosphere Press, 2023) is a truly suspenseful<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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novel of an American college football team based in Reykjavik at the University of<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Iceland. Although this scenario seems unlikely it is not impossible; there was a large<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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US NATO base in Iceland for fifty years and there have actually been Icelandic<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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American Football teams in existence, the Reykjavik Einherjar and the Grindavik<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Berserkir, which also sometimes played teams from Europe. The Puffins are in a<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Division II conference based on the east coast of America, and a successful start to<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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their season and the possibility of winning a championship raises their profile and<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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attracts a famous TV network to the possibility filming a special report on them,<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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hence the novel’s title. So, no pressure then? Phipps tracks the team’s course through<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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the season mainly through the eyes, thoughts and experiences of four main<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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characters, the university’s sports director, the team coach (a woman) and the two<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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quarterbacks vying for being the starter each game. They all have secrets, sexual,<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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emotional, moral or financial, that could potentially derail the program and its<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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possible success. Their personal struggles with their sense of worth and identity,<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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especially in terms of future careers, family relations, spouses, and lovers, imagined<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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or real, past, present and, perhaps, to be, are well-plotted and engaging and both<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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directly and indirectly affect how the season progresses. The football action itself,<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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which is both well-written and convincing, either helps or exacerbates their<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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individual problems and fears. Indeed, the personal and football plots are so well<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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intertwined that the resolution of both the team’s season and of the individuals’ fates<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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become tense, engrossing, and page-turning. The reader really does want to know<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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how it all ends—and you can’t ask for anything more in good sport fiction!<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Footnote: As an ‘útlendingur’ who has lived in Iceland for almost fifty years, I often<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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laughed out loud at Phipps’ droll and laconic, but somehow always affectionate<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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comments on Icelandic society, way of life, and weather; sadly, some of this<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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perceptive humor may be lost on those who have never visited this slightly weird<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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but wonderful country.<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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Julian Meldon D’Arcy, Reykjavik, Iceland.<o:p class="ContentPasted0"> </o:p></p>
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