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Elisabeth Gifford

Secrets of the Sea House

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***Shortlisted For Historical Writers' Association's Debut Crown For Best First Historical Novel***
Scotland, 1860. Reverend Alexander Ferguson, naïve and newly-ordained, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time on the island will irrevocably change the course of his life, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs.
It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. But their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together — a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? Ruth needs to solve the mystery of her new home — but the answers to her questions may lie in her own past.
Based on a real nineteenth-century letter to The Times in which a Scottish clergyman claimed to have seen a mermaid, Secrets of the Sea House is an epic, sweeping tale of loss and love, hope and redemption, and how we heal ourselves with the stories we tell.
This book is currently unavailable
340 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2013
Publication year
2013
Publisher
Corvus
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Impressions

  • Alicia M. Maresshared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    🎯Worthwhile

    Cada secreto desvelado, cada pequeño nodo conectado. Esta es una historia que maneja dos líneas paralelas y 3 narradores centrales (Ruth, Alexander y Moira); donde la Escocia de 1860 y la de 1990 chocan cuando se descubre el esqueleto de un bebé selkie sepultado bajo una casa.
    Una historia de hadas, pueblos y lamentos de las gélidas pero majestuosas islas Hébrides, que toca aspectos de biología, ciencia, religión y emigración; pero más que nada, es una historia de pérdida -el luto por alguien, por un lugar, por lo que pudo ser- de esperanza, fe y amor. Las descripciones de paisajes son lentas pero buenas. No me arrepiento de haberlo leído.

    3.5 estrellas

Quotes

  • Alicia M. Mareshas quoted3 years ago
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    I would like to thank John MacAulay whose book, Sliochd nan Ron: Seal-Folk and Ocean Paddlers, furnished much of the information used in this novel,
  • Alicia M. Mareshas quoted3 years ago
    booming low note fills the hall, and a single voice starts to sing above it in Gaelic, the song of the Sula Skerrie seal man.
  • Alicia M. Mareshas quoted3 years ago
    I am at a loss myself to understand why we have these three variations on a similar story of a seaman: the mermaid, the Selkie and the Finnman.’
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