As a storm heads towards the city, a midwife in Reykavik finds a stash of letters and manuscripts left behind by her grandaunt, and in going through them rediscovers the woman she remembers in Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s Animal Life. In the days leading up to Christmas, Dómhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes…