{"product_id":"george-mackay-brown-beside-the-ocean-of-time-2025-paperback","title":"George Mackay Brown: Beside the Ocean of Time [2025] paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWITH A NEW FOREWORD BY AMY LIPTROT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 1994\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD 1994\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Intimate, humorous, effortlessly combining the strands of history and folklore, the past and the present, this is a deceptively simple book, like a tale told to a child. But its echoes sound on unforgettably. A whole universe is created from a grain of Orkney sand' \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eIn this novel set on the fictitious island of Norday in the Orkneys, George Mackay Brown beckons us into the imaginary world of the young Thorfinn Ragnarson, the son of a crofter. In his day-dreams he relives the history of this island people, travelling back in time to join Viking adventurers at the court of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople, then accompanying a Falstaffian knight to the battle of Bannockburn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThorfinn wakes to the twentieth century and a community whose way of life, steeped in legend and tradition, has remained unchanged for centuries. But as the boy grows up - and falls in love with a vivacious and mysterious stranger - the transforming effect of modern civilization brings momentous and irreversible changes to the island. During the Second World War Thorfinn finds himself in a German prisoner-of-war camp, and it is here that he discovers his gifts as a writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong afterwards he returns, now a successful novelist, to a deserted and battle-scarred island. Searching for the peace and freedom of mind he had in abundance as a child, he finds instead something he didn't even know he was looking for.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Mackay Brown intertwines myth and reality to create a novel of deceptive simplicity. The story of Thorfinn and the island of Norday is a universal and profound one, rooted in the timeless landscape of the Orkneys, the inspiration of all his writing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brown, George Mackay \u0026 Mackay-Brown, George","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":53796048732499,"sku":"9781399827188","price":7.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/brown-george-mackay-mackay-brown-george-george-mackay-brown-beside-the-ocean-of-time-2025-paperback-9781399827188-1239291911.jpg?v=1779217571","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.pro\/products\/george-mackay-brown-beside-the-ocean-of-time-2025-paperback","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}