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The valley at the centre of the world  Cover Image Book Book

The valley at the centre of the world

Tallack, Malachy (author.).

Summary: "The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time. It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on. Shetland: a place of sheep and soil, of harsh weather, close ties and an age-old way of life. A place where David has lived all his life, like his father and grandfather before him, but where he abides only in the present moment. A place where Sandy, a newcomer but already a crofter, may have finally found a home. A place that Alice has fled to after the death of her husband. But times do change - island inhabitants die, or move away, and David worries that no young families will take over the chain of stories and care that this valley has always needed, while others wonder if it was ever truly theirs to join. In the wind and sun and storms from the Atlantic, these islanders must decide: what is left of us when the day's work is done, the children grown, and all our choices have been made?"--Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781786892300
  • Physical Description: print
    regular print
    337 pages : map ; 23 cm
  • Publisher: Edinburgh : Canongate, 2018.
Subject: Communities -- Fiction
Interpersonal relations -- Fiction
Social isolation -- Fiction
Shetland (Scotland) -- Fiction

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Rossland Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Rossland Public Library FIC TAL (Text) 35162001010286 Fiction Volume hold Available -

  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2018 September #1
    A tender evocation of a sheltered valley.In his delicately wrought debut novel, journalist, songwriter, and nonfiction writer Tallack (The Undiscovered Islands:An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes, 2017, etc.) explores the meaning of place, freedom, and community to residents of a remote Scottish island. Like Anne Tyler's Baltimore or Jane Smiley's Iowa, Tallack's Shetland valley, a landscape that he knows intimately, is integral to the lives of his characters, who seek solace and communion there: emotionally wounded Sandy, for one; Alice, a mystery writer grieving after her husband's sudden death; and Terry, escaping loneliness in alcohol. For Sandy, who lives in one of the island's larger towns, the valley insulates him "from the fractured world that once had seemed so threatening," making him feel "absorbed by the place, without being destroyed by it." He came with his girlfriend, Emma, whose parents are crofters, a way of life her father inherited wit hout question: "both a gift and a choice." Emma, though, feeling smothered by the valley, has left, suddenly, to make other choices. When her father offers Sandy work and a place to live, the young man decides to stay. Also escaping a fractured world is Alice, who has returned to the island that enchanted her on her honeymoon. Now she plans to write about it, "to contain it in words and in thoughts, to describe the place and to encompass it." Provisionally titled The Valley at the Centre of the World, the book project, she hopes, will give her a sense of belonging. But learning about hedgehogs, sheep, and hares leaves Alice longing to know more about her elusive, reticent neighbors. After an elderly woman dies, her journals, diaries, and letters are passed on to Alice. But neither the writings nor the woman's house, which Sandy moves into, reveal Maggie's inner life. Indeed, Tallack's gentle, compassionate portrayal of his characters leaves their hearts and minds inviolable: "Sometimes," one woman remarks to Terry, "things lose their magic when you know how to take them apart." A gentle tale of an island buffeted by wild winds and imbued with melancholy. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

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