Urban Volcano

Fiction by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

Flash fiction

The autobiography

I put down the pen, turned the page and placed it on top of the ones that had come before it. The pile of paper was now the complete first draft of my autobiography. In my 40-years-long career as a writer I had never written so many lies. Never had I put so much fiction on paper. Yet, the autobiography was faithful and consistent with the perception I had portrayed over the years. True to the smoke and mirrors I had erected around my personal life.

The autobiography — Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson
Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

The veracious account of my life was written in my novels. Fifteen best-selling works of make-believe fiction. The books that mainstream critics rejected as immoral and unrealistic, with seriously flawed characters. The same stories my readers acclaimed with perverse satisfaction. The accounts of a life that no one dared to admit they desired but everyone secretly craved.

That was my real life, but even I dared not confess.

The flash fiction story The autobiography is part of the flash fiction collection Flash 52.

Börkur is an avid storyteller with a keen eye for quirky characters, funny dialogs and vivid scenario descriptions. Much of his writing falls within the genre of realistic fiction and his stories are more often than not based on real events in the author’s life. Although the tales contain grains of truth, they are melded with fiction, making the reader curious to know the line between reality and fantasy.