First published 2000
The fishermen of Orkney pull their boats onto shore as storms gather over the northern seas. In these fourteen stories, George Mackay Brown moves between the ancient past and the twentieth century present of his island home. Vikings clash with monks in stone churches while modern crofters tend their sheep on the same windswept hills. A young woman waits for her lover's return from the fishing grounds. An old man remembers the stories his grandfather told of seal-people and sacred wells. Children play among standing stones that have watched over the islands for thousands of years. The seasons turn from the harsh beauty of winter gales to the brief brightness of summer, marking the rhythm of island life. Brown captures the voices of farmers and fishermen, storytellers and saints, all bound together by the sea that surrounds them and the land that sustains them. Each story reveals how the past lives on in the present, how ancient patterns of love and loss continue to shape the lives of those who call these remote islands home.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: found-family, past-present
Setting: Orkney
Period: 20th-century, Ancient
160 pages · Paperback · John Murray