AUTHOR: ELISABETH GIFFORD
Pages: 308
Date: 15/08/2013
Grade: 4
Details: Received from Corvus Books
Through Nudge
Own
The story:
In 1992 Ruth and her husband Michael buy an old and
dilapidated house on the Hebridean island
of Harris intending to
renovate it and turn it into a guesthouse. It isn’t long after they start
working on the house when they make a gruesome discovery. Underneath
floorboards they find the old remains of a baby with its legs and feet fused together.
It is a discovery that will awaken old memories for Ruth. Memories she has been
trying to suppress for a long time; memories that can threaten her sanity and
her future.
In 1860 Reverend Alexander Ferguson, newly ordained
and filled with all the right intentions takes up his post on Harris. A fan of Darwin’s recently
released theories and fascinated by the myths about Selkies and mermaids, the
enthusiastic and innocent man has no idea that his time on the island will
change his life irrevocably. The truth about what happened on that island and
in that house will remain hidden for over a century.
Ruth has her own reasons for being obsessed with
mermaids and Selkies. In order to uncover the secrets from the past she will
have to take a close look at her own past and the pain she has suffered. It is
a journey which could bring her the peace of mind she hasn’t known for decades
or destroy everything she holds dear.
My thoughts:
This is an interesting and very clever book. There are
two stories in this book and both of them are equally powerful and fascinating.
The connecting theme in this book is that of mermaid and Selkie myths. The main
narrators of both stories, Ruth and Alexander Ferguson both have reasons to be
interested in these myths. But, while Ferguson’s
interest is mostly a result of curiosity and a quest for scientific proof,
Ruth’s interest is mainly personal, emotional and painful.
When the story starts almost everything, except the
location in which the story is set and the names of the main characters, is a
mystery. And those mysteries are only slowly uncovered. Ruth’s quest to find
out exactly what happened over a century ago - why there was a baby buried
underneath the floorboards in the house she has bought - initially appears to
be about uncovering a fascinating mystery. It only slowly becomes clear why
both the discovery and what it might mean has such enormous importance for her.
With every new bit of information about what happened in the past, Ruth is
brought back to her own past and memories she’s been more or less successfully
suppressing for decades; memories that may destroy her future unless she finds
the courage to face and deal with them.
Surprisingly enough it wasn’t either Ruth or Ferguson’s voice that was
strongest for me in this book. The character that really struck a note with me
was Moira, Ferguson’s
uneducated but very intelligent servant. Through her eyes we get the clearest
picture of exactly what happened during Ferguson’s
time on Harris. The stories about how the poor tenants were forced to emigrate
to Canada so that the landowner would have more ground to graze his sheep was
heartbreaking – especially since it is so very similar to the forced emigration
from Ireland around the same time.
I really liked that this book managed to keep on
surprising me. Revelations are slowly shared with the reader without giving
away all of the secrets contained in the story until the very end of the book.
The mix between myth and reality was fascinating, especially since the lines
appear blurred at times. And while it is possible to have found a logical
explanation for everything that has happened in the story by the time it ends,
it is equally easy to hang on to some of the mythical aspects of this book.
This is a story about the things that haunt us and the
power they can have over our lives. This is the story of one woman and one man
who, separated by a century, each have to find their true path in life through
dealing with the myths that have formed their pasts and personalities. Through
a wonderful blend of myth, fact and historical conjecture combined with a
fascinating story, Elisabeth Gifford gives her reader a story that will stay
with them for a multitude of reasons.
2 comments:
I've just read this too, really enjoyed it.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
Isn't it wonderful to discover a new author through a great story. I love those times.
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