First published 2024
Marilyn Bowering travels through the Scottish Hebrides searching for traces of Mary MacLeod, a 17th century Gaelic bard whose life remains shrouded in contradictory accounts. MacLeod was celebrated for her poetry yet condemned as a witch and forced into exile for her words and her gender. Bowering pieces together fragments of the bard's story by visiting the landscapes where MacLeod once lived, consulting with contemporary Scottish Gaelic poets and scholars, and examining the conflicting historical records. As she investigates MacLeod's legacy preserved in memory and place, Bowering weaves her own Canadian childhood and artistic development into the narrative. The two women's stories converge across centuries and cultures, revealing how the search for MacLeod becomes a journey toward understanding Bowering's own calling as a writer. Through this dual exploration, Bowering recovers not just a marginalized woman's history but discovers the deeper roots of her artistic identity.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, biography-memoir, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-timeline, found-family, marginalized-voices
Setting: Canada, Hebrides, Scotland
Period: 17th Century, 20th Century
282 pages · Hardcover · McGill-Queen's University Press