On a Northern Shore is Janis Mackay’s first novel for adults – an enchanting story steeped in the myth and folklore of Caithness.
The author spent five years in Caithness writing poems and novels inspired by the landscape of the far north of Scotland.
Janis has long embraced Scottish folklore in her children’s novels. Her debut novel Magnus Fin and the Ocean Quest, winner of the 2009 Kelpies Prize, is a story of stepping from the real into the aquatic realm of selkies.
Author Janis Mackay.
She returns to the selkie myth in On a Northern Shore, but this is a story of gothic romance and revenge at the edge of the world, intended for older readers.
With a growing interest in Celtic myth among readers, Janis offers something authentic. On a Northern Shore establishes a powerful sense of place in its depiction of Caithness, and weaves its folklore into the fabric of its landscape and the people who inhabit it.
About the book: This far north, they say the dead are with us… Hogmanay, the far north of Scotland. Alone on the shoreline, lobster fisherman Rob Sinclair pours a dram into the freezing waters of the North Sea. An offering to the sea spirit, the Selkie.
Cover of On a Northern Shore, which is published this month.
That same night, a stranger arrives in Rob’s village. A young woman, Mairi, charged by her dead mother to fulfil three acts of vengeance, bitter payback for deeds done before she was born. Rob is beguiled by her, but she is elusive, frustrating, her personality shapeshifting. The only certainty is that Mairi is not who she says she is.
Luath Press describes the book as “a beautifully written story of friendship and hope set in an untamed landscape”.
Published on September 16, On a Northern Shore is available from Luath Press and the paperback is priced at £10.99.
In 2013, Janis Mackay won the Scottish Children’s Book Award with The Accidental Time Traveller. On a Northern Shore is her first novel for adults. Janis lives in the Scottish Borders with a partner, a river and a writing hut.
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