An der einsamsten Küste Islands, in einem kleinen Dorf in den Westfjorden, in dem die Zeit stillzustehen scheint, lebt Halldór, genannt Dóri, als Fischer. Täglich fährt er auf einem kleinen Kutter hinaus und zieht Kabeljau, Seehasen oder Hering aus dem Meer. In seinem Tagebuch schreibt Dóri über das Wetter und die Natur, die sein Leben bestimmen, über philosophische Fragen, die ihn beschäftigen, und über seine Suche nach der Liebe. Der alte, weise Jónmundur, der selbst nach einem Schlaganfall ans Bett gefesselt ist, ist es, der dem jungen Mann die Schönheit der Welt offenbart. Als Dóri vor einer großen Entscheidung steht, ermutigt ihn Jónmundur, um die Frau seines Lebens zu kämpfen.

One December evening, a bright pink long-distance bus bearing the inscription SPERANZA sets off on its journey from Vienna to Romania. The nocturnal drive brings together people who spend their life in the grey zones of Europe’s labour market. Their pay secures their family’s subsistence, their absence creates new problems. Florin hires himself out as a harvest hand to enable his mother in Bucharest to retire. Daiana cleans private homes in Vienna, even though she has a degree. Ioan, one of the drivers, recounts his first border crossing. “Autobus Ultima Speranza” finds a language for a life spent continuously on the hop, for the hopes and disappointments, the restlessness and structural violence that accompany it.

"The Journey Home" is the author's touching homage to his mother, a fierce woman with an indestructible sense of humor, and at the same time a merciless satire on the absurdity of the Soviet dictatorship in the 1950s: Lina, a young student from Leningrad, modeled on the author's mother, is doing her compulsory labor service in distant Kazakhstan in the summer when she receives a message from home. "Father seriously ill! Come quickly!" With tenacity, desperation and changing companions, Lina sets off on her journey through the Soviet empire, which is ruled by absurd regulations and arbitrary police violence. Will she make it home in time to see her father alive?