Urban Volcano

Fiction by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

Flash fiction

Insomnia

At five o’clock in the morning I sit on the living room floor, enjoying listening to the silence. I hear an occasional car drive through the otherwise empty streets. At six o’clock the birds wake up and start tweeting. From seven o’clock the humans get out of bed, one after another, and the city comes to life. At eight o’clock I fall asleep.

Insomnia — Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson
Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

The flash fiction story Insomnia 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.