{"id":7242,"date":"2020-02-29T15:42:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T14:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7242"},"modified":"2020-02-29T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T14:42:59","slug":"the-sealwomans-gift-by-sally-magnusson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7242","title":{"rendered":"The Sealwomans Gift by Sally Magnusson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sealwomans Gift by Sally Magnusson<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

These are some of our comments about this book, the debut novel for Sally Magnusson.<\/p>\n

Beautifully written, loved this book, rich in wording, descriptions superb, incredible quality of writing, lots of humour even in dire circumstances, superb language, clear storylines, based on a historical event which makes it particularly interesting, no unrealistic ending.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s it all about:- In 1627 Barbary pirates rounded the coast of Iceland and abducted 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland.<\/p>\n

Among the captives sold into slavery were the island pastor, his wife and their 3 children.<\/p>\n

In this re-imagining Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Asta the pastors wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Asta meets the loss of her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home, the stories in her head. Steeped in the sagas and folk tales of her northern homeland she finds herself experiencing not just the separations and agonies of captivity but the reassessments that come in any age when intelligent eyes are opened to other lives, other cultures and other kinds of longing.<\/p>\n

This book is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. The novel is full of stories, Icelandic ones to fend off a slave owner\u2019s advances, Arabian ones to help an old man die.<\/p>\n

The Sealwoman was captured with Asta and lay next to her on the slave ship. Her gift was the saga she recounted which enabled Asta to find peace when she finally returned to Iceland after many years away.<\/p>\n

As well as all our comments we further discussed how advanced the Ottoman Empire was, how hard life sounded in Iceland, the decline and fall of civilisations throughout history<\/p>\n

Some quotes from the book: \u201cForgetting gets easier, thinking gets harder\u201d: \u201cIt is important to be known\u201d: \u201cMen\u2019s stories come through history, women\u2019s don\u2019t\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sealwomans Gift by Sally Magnusson These are some of our comments about this book, the debut novel for Sally Magnusson. Beautifully written, loved this book, rich in wording, descriptions superb, incredible quality of writing, lots of humour even in dire circumstances, superb language, clear storylines, based on a historical event which makes it particularly interesting, no unrealistic ending. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1SO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16675,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16675","url_meta":{"origin":7242,"position":0},"title":"“The Place of Tides” By James Rebanks","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"The Place of Tides\" By James Rebanks This book is set on a remote Norwegian island, and the author writes about his time on the island helping Anna, an elderly woman, as she works with a friend, to keep alive the centuries old practice of harvesting the down of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for March 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for March 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=431"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mar-2026-Book-233x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16496,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16496","url_meta":{"origin":7242,"position":1},"title":"“This Must be the Place” by Maggie O’Farrell","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"This Must be the Place\" by Maggie O'Farrell If you haven't noticed, it's the award season in the film world with Oscar and Bafta nominations for the best film and TV programmes from 2025 being discussed. 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