Island of Wings: A Novel

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Penguin, Dec 27, 2011 - Fiction - 320 pages
A dazzling debut novel of love and loss, faith and atonement, on an untamed nineteenth-century Scottish island.

Exquisitely written and profoundly moving, Island of Wings is a richly imagined novel about two people struggling to keep their love, and their family, alive in a place of extreme hardship and unearthly beauty. Everything lies ahead for Lizzie and Neil McKenzie when they arrive at the St. Kilda islands in July of 1830. Neil is to become the minister to the small community of islanders, and Lizzie-bright, beautiful, and devoted-is pregnant with their first child. As the two adjust to life at the edge of civilization, where the natives live in squalor and babies perish mysteriously, their marriage-and their sanity-are soon threatened.

 

Contents

JULY 1830 ARRIVAL
MAY 1831 A VISIT
AUGUST 1834 CHANGE
18351838 ECLIPSE
JUNE 1838 LESSONS
JULY 1838 TRIAL OF FAITH
MARCH 1841 EXPOSURE
MAY 1843 DEPARTURE
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About the author (2011)

Karin Altenberg is senior advisor to the Swedish National Heritage Board and is a fellow of the Linnean Society. She is currently at work on her second novel. She lives in London.

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