Happy Iceland: How Icelandic Strangers Taught a Miserable American the Secret to Lifelong Happiness

A simple question at Iceland's international airport—What are your happiest memories of Iceland?—sets off an unforgettable journey across the Land of Fire and Ice. Abandoning guidebooks and itineraries, a young woman on the precipice of turning thirty, newly unemployed and stuck in a faltering relationship, spends five weeks backpacking and hitchhiking to find the locations where Icelandic strangers' happiest memories took place. From childhood sports fields and family farms to hidden waterfalls and the remote Highlands, this intimate travel memoir explores Iceland far beyond what can be seen from a sightseeing bus tour. Part adventure, part meditation on what it takes to be happy in a volatile world, Happy Iceland is a reminder that some of the best journeys begin when we shut up and listen.

"[A] rare triumph—both for the writer's brain in Anne Marie Wells and for the health of her heart. It's a triple threat when an author can educate, entertain and embolden you all at once. And I suppose a quadruple threat, when they move you to change how you live. Wells accomplishes this and more in this unique, beautiful memoir, one you will not be able to put down. It should be called Happy Everywhere....as it helped me find joy no matter where I went after I read it."
—Laura Carney
Author of My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free