It came up cheap on a Kindle deal some time ago and i thought i may as well throw it in “The Pile” and give it a read when i had a mermaid binge.
And i think i’m very glad i did.
The story is set in some far out Scottish fishing village way back somewhere in time. Su really does give the reader a feel of what life must have been like for these rural fishing folk and their families in these isolated far flung villages before newspapers, radios, telephones, television and even local doctors. Where you’d have to rely on the local herbalist, or hedge witch, for your healthcare needs.
Sometimes it’s pretty grim. As i say, it’s set way back in time when simple folk live rather simple lives in simple villages, and the story begins with a fairly simple fisherman hiding a Selkie’s seal skin while she’s out of it and then raping her when she can’t go back to the water. Don’t worry if you’re not up on what a Selkie is, the story covers all you need to know. I would even say it’s probably better if you don’t know about Selkies because this is an expansion of an old folk story about Selkies and if you’ve read that story then you just might guess the ending of this one.
So having raped her he takes her back to his cottage and later returns to collect her seal skin.
And so the story begins and plays out amongst these old world fisher folk of the village. And it’s really good, even in all it’s old world grimness.
It’s incredibly well written in a nice, easy flowing prose, and one can really fall completely into the story without disruption or distraction.
Lots of kudos goes out to all writers who revive these old folk tales for us all to enjoy in our modern times.
