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Although all members didn't agree, most of us found this to be a wonderful historical novel about a little-known episode in Icelandic history, a 17th century raid by Barbary pirates which carried off hundreds of people from the tiny island of Heimaey to be enslaved. Sally Magnusson has taken some of the contemporary accounts of the survivors and fleshed them out, with Asta, the wife of the pastor who wrote one of the accounts as her heroine. The book opens with the pirate raid so the reader is i
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So,I started off disliking this book. It seemed dreary and dull and the main two characters were annoying. I was about halfway through when I suddenly started warming to both plot and characters. The contrast of cold,grey Iceland and warm,colourful Algeria is beautifully captured and Arta's dilemma seems very real and was written in a way that was completely believable.
I liked the idea of the intertwining stories of the people and the tales embedded in their different cultures. ...more
I liked the idea of the intertwining stories of the people and the tales embedded in their different cultures. ...more
