Heðin Brús' "Father and Son on the Road" is a masterpiece of Nordic literature. It is one of the first novels in which the Faroese language, previously reserved for rural everyday life and traditional folk songs, became literature. Heðin Brú tells with fine, affectionate humor about life on the wind-swept, treeless Faroe Islands, surrounded by the foamy sea. He reports on the austere daily life between whaling, peat cutting, and collecting driftwood. Ketil, a quirky Faroese fisherman, bids at an auction for a piece of whale meat that is too large and too expensive for him after a successful whaling trip. When he learns that he must pay for it by the end of the year, he spares no effort to raise the necessary money. His sense of honor does not allow him to live with debt. The youngest of his eleven children is the last one still living with him.