Overview

A story of friendship, history and redemption on a remote Norwegian island We are all in need of lights to follow. One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on. Back at home, Rebanks couldn't stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly - and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly- her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island. This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, building little wooden huts that will protect the ducks come spring; to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for the woman to gather, like feathered gold. Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not at all what he had previously thought. As the weeks pass, what began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.

Full Product Details

9780241426937

Table of Contents

Reviews

A magnificent book -- wonderfully unlike any other. Rebanks is a passionately close observer of the natural order and our vexed position within it. The Place of Tides is big-hearted and transporting, a quietly gripping reckoning with self-sufficiency and interdependence, with the lives that make us and the lives that we make. I didn’t want it to end, and I can’t wait to reread it -- Philip Gourevitch - - Praise for James Rebanks -- - Rebanks speaks with blunt, unmatched authority. He is a fine writer with descriptive power and a gift for characterisation -- Caroline Fraser * New York Review of Books * James Rebanks writes with his heart, and his heart is in the right place. We should listen to him -- Jamie Blackett * Telegraph * James Rebanks combines the descriptive powers of a great novelist with the pragmatic wisdom of a farmer who has watched his world transform -- Ed Caesar Lyrical, evocative, generous ... Thank the gods of agriculture for James Rebanks -- Kristin Kimball * The New York Times * Rebanks shows wit, has a succinct imaginative touch, and makes nonsense of conventional ideas of intelligence -- David Craig * Guardian * James Rebanks has a sharp eye and a lyrical heart * Daily Mail *

A magnificent book -- wonderfully unlike any other. The Place of Tides is big-hearted and transporting, a quietly gripping reckoning with self-sufficiency and interdependence, with the lives that make us and the lives that we make. I didn’t want it to end, and I can’t wait to reread it -- Philip Gourevitch James Rebanks has done a miraculous thing. He takes the reader with him to a stark, remote island on the strangest mission in the toughest circumstances and makes you feel like you’re coming home. A profound, transformative, uplifting story -- Isabella Tree The Place of Tides is a magical book, at once a lament for a world in danger of disappearing, and a celebration of an indomitable spirit determined to preserve it. James Rebanks has written a quiet yet ringing masterpiece. -- John Banville An extraordinary story, gently told. This was just the book I needed -- Nigel Slater Deceptively simple, emotionally surprising, beautiful, and true -- Melissa Harrison This is utterly engaging storytelling. The drama, the change, the mystery, the unknown; the details of nature, the moods, the hope and despair; the memories, reflections and learning that emerge out of long lives lived fully: The Place of Tides tells a beautiful story that is profound and moving -- Jane Clarke The Place of Tides is a captivating portrait of a younger man learning from an older woman, of the great buzzing jungle of the modern world versus the silent wisdom of old ways, of paying attention to your heart instead of the internet, of finding out how to go your own way. It is a revelation about another way of living, long past, but now revived. But what really strikes is the emotional profundity. Rebanks lays himself open, as a man in need of redemption, who finds solace in the remotest of places, and with the most unexpected of people: a Scandinavian duck woman in her seventies. The book will stand as one of the great portraits of a wise, courageous and indomitable woman written in tribute by a grateful man -- Laura Cumming A love letter to the quiet and complex majesty of a little-known landscape and the women that tirelessly tend to it. It moved, humbled and educated me and made a place I have never set my eyes on suddenly vivid and close -- Vanessa Kisuule Humane, beautifully paced, gentle, and strangely compelling, The Place of Tides feels like, not only a modern classic, but one we very much need right now -- George Saunders A charismatic portrait of fidelity and the true meaning of home -- Nick Offerman The Place of Tides is terrific – so honest and strange. It’s somehow about eider ducks, middle age, one woman’s breathtaking skill and determination, the collapse of the natural order and everything in between. I think it’s Rebanks’ best book yet -- Sam Knight

- - Praise for James Rebanks -- - Rebanks speaks with blunt, unmatched authority. He is a fine writer with descriptive power and a gift for characterisation -- Caroline Fraser * New York Review of Books * James Rebanks writes with his heart, and his heart is in the right place. We should listen to him -- Jamie Blackett * Telegraph * James Rebanks combines the descriptive powers of a great novelist with the pragmatic wisdom of a farmer who has watched his world transform -- Ed Caesar Lyrical, evocative, generous ... Thank the gods of agriculture for James Rebanks -- Kristin Kimball * The New York Times * Rebanks shows wit, has a succinct imaginative touch, and makes nonsense of conventional ideas of intelligence -- David Craig * Guardian * James Rebanks has a sharp eye and a lyrical heart * Daily Mail * James Rebanks’s story of his family’s farm is just about perfect. It belongs with the finest writing of its kind. -- Wendell Berry One of the most captivating memoirs of recent years … Written with the passionate clarity of a poet and the shrewd good sense of an honest man … Like the best books, it gives you hope and new energy * Guardian * It's bloody marvellous -- Helen Macdonald A remarkable achievement ... part calendar, part memoir, part encomium for fell-farming – a deceptively powerful prose style, a depth of knowledge and a sense of moral integrity feels like a draught of pure revivifying Lakeland air * FInancial Times * A masterpiece ... a poetic, practical, raw and almost miraculously detailed picture of this ancient way of life struggling to survive and to be reborn -- Melvyn Bragg A brilliant, beautiful book ... Eloquent, persuasive and electric with the urgency that comes out of love * The Sunday Times *

Author Information

James Rebanks is a shepherd based in the Lake District. His first book, The Shepherd's Life, won The Lakeland Book of the Year 2015 and was shortlisted for both The Wainwright Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. Also known as the Herdwick Shepherd, his Twitter account of daily life in the Lakes has a strong international following. His family have lived and farmed in the Lake District for six hundred years.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available