- A tenement room-and-kitchen flat in Rutherglen, near Glasgow. A woman with stark injuries to her face and her mind and a man recently arrived from America spend the night together. Through facing their shared past and the brutal events of 30 years ago, they can finally glimpse a future of new possibilities.
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Summary
- A tenement room-and-kitchen flat in Rutherglen, near Glasgow. A woman with stark injuries to her face and her mind and a man recently arrived from America spend the night together. Through facing their shared past and the brutal events of 30 years ago, they can finally glimpse a future of new possibilities.
Description
'Wonderful and moving' Clare Chambers
'Utterly absorbing' Sunday PostSHORTLISTED FOR THE WINSTON GRAHAM HISTORICAL PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZEJamesina Ross is long finished with men. But one night a stranger seeking lodgings knocks on the door of her tenement flat. He doesn't recognise her, but she remembers him at once. Not that she plans to mention it. She has no intention of trusting anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable again. A lifetime ago, growing up in a Highland glen, Jamesina Ross wrote songs about the land and the kin who had worked it for generations. But her music was no match for the violence her community faced in the Highland Clearances. Jamesina has borne the disfigurements of that day ever since, on her face and inside her head. Her lodger thinks that if she would only dare to open the past, she might have the chance of a future. This is a story about resilience, memory, resurrection - and those parts of who we are that nobody can take away. A beautiful exploration of unlooked-for love in later life, its contrariness and its awkward, surprising joys, this is a story about resilience, memory, resurrection - and those parts of who we are that nobody can take away.Critic Reviews
Music in the Dark is a beautifully-written piece of work, achieved with immense skill. The portrayal of Jamesina Ross as she is shattered and put back together by the light-touch constancy of Niall Munro is perfectly balanced. The minute focus on these two individuals tells a huge story of the C19th Highlands, Glasgow and North America that readers will find deeply affecting -- Shona MacLean
An engrossing, beautifully written novel about the Highland Clearances and the long-term physical, emotional and psychological damage done to those who were forced from their homes and homeland. Like all good historical fiction, it both illuminates the past and speaks eloquently to the present -- James Robertson, author of The Testament of Gideon Mack
A wonderful and moving story, beautifully told . . . an episode of history brought vividly to life -- Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
I absolutely loved this book. An important and brutal historical event - but also a tender and unusual love story. It gave me writer envy -- Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers
Truer to the reality of clearance and what came after than many ostensibly factual accounts of those events -- James Hunter, author of Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland Clearances
Part understated love story and part lament for a people and way of life brushed aside to make way for a more profitable commodity . . . this affecting novel attests to a heartfelt faith in the power of song to heal wounds and keep memories alive Herald
Her best yet . . . Beautifully written and utterly absorbing, it is a fiction fashioned from fact Sunday Post
There is nothing tentative about Sally Magnusson's new novel; it is a fine piece of craftsmanship . . . This is a delightful and sympathetic novel, beautifully written Scotsman, Books of the Year
Magnusson tackles the dual timescale with perfect assurance in a beautifully written novel that makes you think and feel at the same time The i Paper
A deeply moving, astonishing and beautiful book. Several times its unexpected twists took me by surprise and I caught my breath . . . What a remarkable, gifted and courageous person Sally Magnusson is, steeped in the power of words, a story teller, driven by conscience, our best commentator on national events. There is nothing sentimental here. It's a wonderful book about hope and the possibility of healing -- Prof Sir Iain Torrance Church of Scotland Magazine
About the Author
Sally Magnusson's third novel delves again into the experience of women on which the historical record is largely silent - this time placing a Victorian washer-woman of low class, despised race, advancing age and brilliant but injured mind into exhilarating light, and exploring the effect of brutal community displacement. Her debut novel, The Sealwoman's Gift (2018), about the experience of a seventeenth century Icelandic woman abducted into slavery, was shortlisted for 6 literary prizes. The Ninth Child (2020) was acclaimed for its blend of historical realism and chilling folklore. She is also the author of the Sunday Times bestselling memoir, Where Memories Go: Why Dementia changes Everything (2016).
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