The Sea Road
Margaret Elphinstone
Available as Paperback
‘Forget Richard Branson, the audacious female traveller Gudrid of Iceland is the original explorer’s explorer … Elphinstone has written a fine tribute to a woman whose tale is as warm and inviting as a hot spring on a clear winter day.’ The Times
A haunting, compelling historical novel, The Sea Road is a daring re-telling of the 11th-century Viking exploration of the North Atlantic from the viewpoint of one extraordinary woman. Gudrid lives at the remote edge of the known world, in a starkly beautiful landscape where the sea is the only connection to the shores beyond. It is a world where the old Norse gods are still invoked, even as Christianity gains favour, where the spirits of the dead roam the vast northern ice-fields, tormenting the living, and Viking explorers plunder foreign shores.
Taking the accidental discovery of North America as its focal point, Gudrid’s narrative describes a multi-layered voyage into the unknown, all recounted with astonishing immediacy and rich atmospheric detail.
“a gripping historical novel…written with considerable style.”
the Bookseller
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“the author cleverly interweaves Gutrin’s discourse with her innermost thoughts … the Sea Road will appeal to historian, environmentalists, anthropologists and just ordinary cruising seamen.”
cruising
”The Sea Road offers a new take on the remarkable early seafaring adventures of the Norwegians, and on the spread of Christianity in the pagan north, and is all the more rewarding for that.”
the Scotsman
“Forget Richard Branson, the audacious female traveller Gudrid of Iceland is the original explorer’s explorer … Elphinstone has written a fine tribute to a woman whose tale is as warm and inviting as a hot spring on a clear winter day.”
the Times
Margaret Elphinstone
Margaret Elphinstone is the author of eight novels, including The Incomer (1987), A Sparrow’s Flight (1989), Islanders (1994), The Sea Road (2000), Hy Brasil (2002), Voyageurs (2003) and Light (2006). She has also had published short stories, poetry and two books on organic gardening. Her next book, And Some There Be, will be published by Canongate in 2009. She lives in Glasgow and teaches at the University of Strathclyde.