I Am An Island

I Am An Island
Tamsin Calidas
RRP:
NZ$ 24.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 19.20
Paperback
h197 x 127mm - 320pg
8 Apr 2021 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781784164782
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
'Completely astonishing...the fragility of life transcended and restored by the triumphant pull of a determination to survive' - Juliet NicolsonWhen Tamsin Calidas first arrives on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, it feels like coming home. Disenchanted by London, she and her husband left the city and high-flying careers to move the 500 miles north, despite having absolutely no experience of crofting, or of island life. It was idyllic, for a while. But as the months wear on, the children she'd longed for fail to materialise, and her marriage breaks down, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation.Injured, ill, without money or friend she is pared right back, stripped to becoming simply a raw element of the often harsh landscape. But with that immersion in her surroundings comes the possibility of rebirth and renewal. Tamsin begins the slow journey back from the brink. Startling, raw and extremely moving, I Am An Island is a story about the incredible ability of the natural world to provide when everything else has fallen away - a stunning book about solitude, friendship, resilience and self-discovery.
A wondrous, sensuous memoir of salt-stung survival... clear-eyed and poetic prose. Over and above everything else, I Am an Island is a hymn to the wild, full of fine observation of the natural world. A message that rings true for these testing times. * The Sunday Times *This is a startling book, a vivid and terrifying reminder of how an island can seduce, madden - and ultimately sustain those brave enough to endure its confines. -- Madeleine Bunting, author of Love of CountryAn extraordinary book, a wild and redemptive account of reaching rock bottom and swimming back into the light. I'm awed by Tamsin's courage, her resilience and huge heart. Her island will stay with me for a very long time. -- Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City and To the RiverAn island tale like no other. An unforgettably moving and compulsive read, steeped in anguish and beauty. A book that is unafraid to stare deep into the abyss, and still find a way forward. The story of a woman completely broken by life, and her fifteen-year struggle to find the inner strength to restore herself, through sheer determination, and by immersing herself in solitude. -- Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country and Deer IslandCompletely astonishing. Using language of shimmering beauty, Tamsin Calidas describes the unravelling of a relationship with such exquisitely small stitches that the eventual thread-baring of her physical and emotional safety, her sense of identity and purpose, blows in like a cold slap of Hebridean wind. A Hardyesque, stripped back connection to the landscape emerges. And yet only with the fragmentation of everything that matters is the fragility of life transcended and restored by the triumphant pull of a determination to survive. -- Juliet NicolsonGripping...Tough yet compulsive reading, carried by crisp, vivid prose. -- Amy Liptrot, author of The OutrunA meditative breath of fresh air. This book will fill your lungs, sting your eyes and catch in your throat. Soaring prose like birdsong over the harsh lands that compelled Tamsin Calidas to breathe deep. -- Ruth Fitzmaurice, author of I Found My TribeThe memoir of the year...a lyrical paean to the wild beauty of the Hebrides. * Vogue *An extraordinary book of limitless resilience, Calidas' leaping prose is a love song to the natural world. What she achieves with an open heart and a will of iron is nothing short of remarkable. -- Sarah Langford, author of In Your DefenceSo raw, so honest, so intense. I didn't want this book to end. -- Sigri Sandberg, author of An Ode to DarknessCombining intensely beautiful nature writing with the excavation of deep emotion, this brave, startling book examines what it really means to lose yourself in nature, and in doing so find a completely new version of yourself, too. A powerful, unsettling but ultimately redemptive account of one woman's deep communion with the natural world. -- Clover Stroud, author of My Wild and Sleepless NightsAny preconceptions you may entertain about 'a Londoner, tiring of the city, moves to a Scottish Island' will be smashed in the first chapter of Tamsin Calidas' astonishing, raw and clear-eyed book. Tamsin charts how she comes to terms with loss, loneliness, hardship and prejudice through immersing herself fully in her island habitat. I am an Island is a powerful, affecting book; glittering and visceral, Tamsin's clear-voiced self-reliance becomes a storm-force of nature in itself. -- Nicola Chester, Nature Writer, RSPB Columnist and Guardian Country DiaristA beautiful book...I urge you to seek it out. -- Jane GarveyA beautifully written, emotionally intense memoir * Sunday Express *The island is a metaphor for anyone who has ever been alone... It is about what happens when everything you are used to falls away, which is something we are all experiencing at the moment. * Daily Mail *
Tamsin Calidas is a writer and photographer living in the wilds of the Scottish Hebrides.She worked in various roles in advertising, publishing and the BBC before giving it all up in 2004 to move to a tiny, remote island in Scotland to run a derelict croft with sheep and horses.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781784164782
Published: 8 Apr 2021
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Black Swan
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Format: Paperback
Height: 197mm
Width: 127mm
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 225g
Pages: 320

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