Audiobook Review - The Ferryman and His Wife

Title: The Ferryman and His Wife

Author: Frode Grytten

Translator: Alison McCullough

Publisher: Algonquin Books

@algonquinbooks

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pub Day: 11/18/25

Format: Audiobook

{Thank you @librofm for the #gifted audiobook to listen to from @hachetteaudio. The Ferryman and His Wife by Norwegian author, Frode Grytten, is expertly narrated by Colin Mace and I felt immersed in the story.}

I’m a big fan of translated fiction. I find these stories to be quiet and thoughtful in nature. Some of my favorite translated books have been The Door-To-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn, Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Toyama, The Postcard by Anne Berest, and When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen.

I will definitely be add The Ferryman and His Wife to this list!

“On this last day he will pull a thread through time, follow it backwards, see where time takes him. He will travel this fixed route, or rather the scheduled routes for the very last time. He will trace what he has loved in life. Lift it up. Honor it. For if he doesn’t do this, who will?”

Nils Vik is a simple man with a simple job—ferrying people back and forth across the Fjord where he was not only born, but has lived his whole life. Nils wakes up one morning and knows it will be the day he dies, so he takes one last trip on his ferryboat along the fjord. This voyage is met by his deceased dog Luna, the ghosts of his family & friends, and many acquaintances from his years of ferrying them too and from the village. The one person he is desperate to have join him is his beloved wife, Marta, who he lost earlier in the year from a stroke.

Character driven with beautiful prose, a magical feeling, and a warm hug, we really grow to learn about Nils on this backwards journey of people and life. I loved this story and journey!

4.5 ⭐️, out this Tuesday and comes with my recommendation!

“But if you’re not careful, doubt can slip inside and start to live it’s own invisible life.”