'Fascinating'- Robert Macfarlane,author of The Old Ways'Truly a thing of wonder'- Kerri ní Dochartaigh,author of Thin Places'Lyrical (and) thoughtful'- Cal Flyn,author of Islands of AbandonmentVisiting Iceland as an anthropologist and film-maker in 2008,Sarah Thomas is spellbound by its otherworldly landscape. An immediate love for this country and for Bjarni,a man she meets there,turns a week-long stay into a transformative half-decade,one which radically alters Sarah's understanding of herself and of the living world.She embarks on a relationship not only with Bjarni,but with the light,the language,and the old wooden house they make their home. She finds a place where the light of the midwinter full moon reflected by snow can be brighter than daylight,where the earth can tremor at any time,and where the word for echo - bergmál - translates as'the language of the mountain'. In the midst of crisis both personal and planetary,as her marriage falls apart,Sarah finds inspiration in the artistry of a raven's nest: a home which persists through breaking and reweaving - over and over.Written in beautifully vivid prose The Raven's Nest is a profoundly moving meditation on place,identity and how we might live in an era of environmental disruption.
Publisher: Atlantic BooksISBN: 9781838956714Number of pages: 336Weight: 317 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 23 mmEdition: Main
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A deeply thoughtful,vivid,enquiring,genre-traversing book,closely attentive to the people and the landscapes with which it dwells. It asks hard questions - and offers no easy answers - about what it means to belong to a place,and to live well upon a part of the earth. Sarah's writing - crisp in its details,patient in its rhythms - draws its readers northwards and inwards upon a fascinating journey.Sarah Thomas'lyrical,thoughtful prose takes us on a journey,both physical and emotional,to the far north.An insightful,intuitive introduction to Icelandic culture,folklore,mysticism,language and nature.A quiet,generous and beautifully written meditation on what it means to try to belong to a singular culture on the'edge'of Europe.Thomas'writing is the stuff of dreams - not in any whimsical way - rather,in the way of bones and stones; light and dark; hopes and fears. She leads the reader through various portals - from a place of unknowing - to one of hope. This book maps the self,the world and the spaces in between with such tender care. Truly a thing of wonder.A metamorphic book bursting with ideas and insights about belonging,acceptance,and supernatural joy. A chronicle of Iceland's ever-strange,prismic beauty and the myriad ways it works on the heart.The Raven's Nest asks what it means to belong to a place from which we do not originate. Anthropological and tender in detail.The Raven's Nest is a candid yet beautiful memoir,an homage both to Iceland and a rapidly changing way of life,and a meditation on the constantly shifting nature of human identity. Thomas's evocative prose leaves striking images which glow in the memory long after the reading has ended.Sarah Thomas evokes characters and the culture,a sense of time and the landscape in beautiful prose which makes my brain do cartwheels.The Raven's Nest is about a meeting of worlds. Sarah arrives in Iceland with a'guest's clear eyes',as Icelanders say. A sincere and perceptive book that explores love,adventure and the search for connections in a big world.A delicate cartography of emotional landscapes as well as place,The Raven's Nest is also a journey into to the heart of our planetary crisis. Beautiful,moving and fascinating.
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