What if the life you didn’t plan is the one where you find your voice?
In early 2016, Eliza Reid’s biggest daily goals were modest but meaningful: showering without one of her four kids bursting into the bathroom, juggling clients without dropping a deadline, and growing the writers’ retreat she was building from scratch. What wasn’t on her bingo card? That her husband―a bookish, cardigan-wearing history professor ― would run for president of Iceland … and seven weeks later, actually win.
Suddenly, Canadian-born Eliza was catapulted into a new life as First Lady of her adopted country, with the eyes of a nation watching her every move―as someone’s wife. Absent an instruction manual (she Googled how to curtsey before meeting the Queen of Denmark), she decided to do what she’d always done: figure it out on her own terms.
Part fish out-of-water story and part fairy tale, The First Lady Next Door takes readers from rural Ontario to Timbuktu, and from the White House to Buckingham Palace. Eliza shows how embracing authenticity in all its messiness can become our greatest strength, even when the world expects polished perfection. After all, our everyday moments are what create the roadmap for making the unexpected count.
“I think what Eliza has managed to do in her new memoir is to cheer on the inner nerd who lives inside of us all. I laughed out loud so many times at the banal yet totally fascinating situations she found herself in—and could relate to how life can be completely and wonderfully unpredictable. Read this book and get to know one of the most interesting women I’ve ever met.” – Jann Arden, #1 bestselling author of The Bittlemores and Feeding My Mother
A group of international players has gathered in a tiny village off the coast of Iceland for a diplomatic dinner. There’s Kristján, the mayor reeling from a personal tragedy. Graeme, the ambassador with an agenda to push. Jane, his wife, along for the ride on another one of her husband’s many business trips. And several others, from Iceland and from abroad, each with their own reason for being there, their own loyalties and grievances. By the end of the night, one of them will be dead. And it will be up to the ambassador’s wife, Jane, to figure out how―and why.
What Jane soon comes to realise is that small communities can be the most dangerous of them all… and no one in their group is safe. With secrets around every corner and violent weather trapping the finite list of suspects together on the island, this locked-room mystery by internationally bestselling author Eliza Reid brings Agatha Christie and Nordic noir together in a brand-new twist.
Eliza founded the Iceland Writers Retreat with Erica Jacobs Green. The first event was held in 2014. In 2023 events featured authors including Gretchen Rubin, Patrick Gale, Elnathan John, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, David Chariandy, Aminatta Forna, and Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney. The featured author for the IRR is Adam Gopnik. Visit our website for more information.
Join us at the Iceland Writers Retreat from April 23-27, 2025, in Reykjavík, Iceland
FromBookpal:
The Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Awards spotlight the best books shaping society today. Every year, our book experts explore and assess the thousands of books published each year for titles that change the way organizations do business, educators create and teach curriculum, and communities understand and pursue wellbeing.
Judges had this to say about Secrets of the Sprakkar: “I believe everyone has the ability to learn from this fascinating book! The women in this book were so inspiring that I felt an unspoken bond with them that made me want to connect more with the women in my life.”
Secrets of the Sprakkar debuted at #9 on the Canadian Non-Fiction bestseller lists of both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail after its publication.
The Kit, Feb. 3, 2022: “The book is peppered with lively personal anecdotes about Reid’s life as first lady, interviews with notable local women, and observations about daily life in the beautiful country . . . It’s interesting to hear so directly and unguardedly from an active first lady.”
Toronto Star, Jan. 28 2022: “This is, on one level, a deeply personal story. … Reid’s voice is engaging and interesting, and she peppers the story with her own discoveries of how the country and the idea of gender equality worked.”
The Globe and Mail, Feb 17, 2022: Q&A interview
Zoomer magazine, Feb. 1, 2022: Q&A interview
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For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that makes many women’s experiences there so positive?
Why has their society made such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? And how can we learn from what Icelanders have already discovered about women’s powerful place in society and how increased fairness benefits everyone?
Eliza Reid, the First Lady of Iceland, examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women—the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement.
Reid’s own experience as an immigrant from small-town Canada who never expected to become a first lady is expertly interwoven with interviews with dozens of sprakkar (“extraordinary women”) to form the backbone of an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman, and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as “equal” than we may understand. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.
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