From the author of the prizewinning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes an evocative and highly original fictional rendering of the Isle of Lewis across the centuries. Continuing his elegiac Lewis novels, Donald S. Murray serves up a remarkable new work that sweeps across time from the eighth century to the present day. Layering interlinked stories of successive generations like blankets of peat, he allows echoes of ancient lives to surface in the present. This is a novel that mirrors the shifting rhythms of wind and tide. The struggles and joys of past lives are refracted in the heartaches and hopes of modern-day islanders. As in his award-winning previous novels, the ordinary is suffused with quiet wonder; every place and gesture carries memories and meaning. Ultimately, this is a novel about continuity. The land holds its secrets, letting the past break surface in sometimes surprising ways. Murray s compassionate gaze reminds us that time can be viewed as a circle, where the living are in constant conversation with those who came before.

Prizes

Winner of Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2020 (UK)

Donald S Murray is a writer and poet whose work has been awarded The Society of Authors Paul Torday Memorial Prize and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award (2021), as well as a number of honorary fellowships. His critically acclaimed books bring to life the culture and nature of the Scottish islands, and he appears regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland and as a live performer.