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The Book Nook welcomed Sally Magnusson recently to an event for her latest book, The Shapeshifter’s Daughter. The audience were captivated and intrigued by the readings Sally gave from the two threads of her novel. One - a retelling of the myth of ‘Hel’ and one a contemporary story about a woman facing a terminal illness returning to her home.
Nothing, on earth or below it, freezes faster than the worthless heart. Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel's fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed.Half beauty, half crone, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death's travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home.
In the story set in modern times, Helen Firth is faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis and makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands: to die. As Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she believes herself to be is not who she really is.
Reading the tragedy of Hel's story and Helen's illness is lightened by humour, especially in the banter between Helen and Thorfinn. Both Hel and Helen confront isolation, identity, and the inevitability of death. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, this is also a book that is insightful, compelling and life-affirming.
Remember as an Ayrshire Magazine Virtual Book Club member, you get free shipping when you order these books online from The Book Nook Stewarton.
The Book Nook welcomed Sally Magnusson recently to an event for her latest book, The Shapeshifter’s Daughter. The audience were captivated and intrigued by the readings Sally gave from the two threads of her novel. One - a retelling of the myth of ‘Hel’ and one a contemporary story about a woman facing a terminal illness returning to her home.
Nothing, on earth or below it, freezes faster than the worthless heart. Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel's fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed.Half beauty, half crone, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death's travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home.
In the story set in modern times, Helen Firth is faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis and makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands: to die. As Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she believes herself to be is not who she really is.
Reading the tragedy of Hel's story and Helen's illness is lightened by humour, especially in the banter between Helen and Thorfinn. Both Hel and Helen confront isolation, identity, and the inevitability of death. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, this is also a book that is insightful, compelling and life-affirming.
Remember as an Ayrshire Magazine Virtual Book Club member, you get free shipping when you order these books online from The Book Nook Stewarton.