Those of you who read Night-Waking, one of our favourite Bookclub novels of 2012, will remember Sarah Moss' witty and observant take on motherhood, and the impact of trying to bring up two small children on a tiny isolated island. NAMES FOR THE SEA is her very own experience of doing exactly that - in 2009, Moss accepted a job at the University of Iceland, and moved her family to Reykjavik. Her arrival co-incided with the economic collapse, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and the onset of Arctic winter, where even the sea is silent and instead of waves there are 'grey slabs, piled up against each other like fallen gravestones'. As the weeks turn into months, Moss and her family explore boiling mud geysers and remote farms, struggle to learn ancient customs and modern Icelandic driving skills, and hunt for any type of fresh vegetable that isn't a potato. Packed with fascinating anthropological detail and comparisons between cultures, this is an extremely intelligent, honest and funny account of one English family's adventures in the Arctic Circle.
Sarah's website has an excellent page about Names for The Sea plus her recent blog posts and information on all her other books.
Granta have 50 copies to give to Mumsnetters - to claim yours please go to the book of the month page. We'll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you're not lucky enough to bag one of the free books, you can always get your paperback or Kindle version here.
If you get a free copy, we do expect you to come and and tell us what you think. So please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and look forward to hearing your thoughts...
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What we're reading
NAMES FOR THE SEA, by Sarah Moss (author of NIGHT-WAKING) is our July NonFiction choice
50 replies
TillyBookClub · 08/07/2013 11:06
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fuckwittery ·
08/07/2013 21:10
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fuckwittery ·
21/07/2013 06:17
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