About the Book:
In 1860, Alexander Ferguson, a newly ordained vicar and amateur evolutionary scientist, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the legend of the selkies—mermaids or seal people who have been sighted off the north of Scotland for centuries. He has a more personal motive, too; family legend states that Alexander is descended from seal men. As he struggles to be the good pastor he was called to be, his maid Moira faces the terrible eviction of her family by Lord Marstone, whose family owns the island. Their time on the island will irrevocably change the course of both their lives, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after they are gone.
It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. Their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together—a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? To heal her own demons, Ruth feels she must discover the secrets of her new home—but the answers to her questions may lie in her own traumatic past. The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford is a sweeping tale of hope and redemption and a study of how we heal ourselves by discovering our histories.
About the Author:
Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She has written articles for The Times and the Independent and has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is married with three children. They live in Kingston on Thames but spend as much time as possible in the Hebrides.
My Review:
Ruth and Michael buy a dilapidated old house. As they store to repair this old house they are surprised by what they find. They start to repair the floors and they find a skeleton. A skeleton of a baby that possibly looks like a mermaid. Ruth then takes on the seemingly impossible task of trying to figure out the story behind this famous finding.
Pastor Alexander Ferguson is determined to find out the truth behind the mermaid sightings on the northern coast of Scotland. As his research into these mysterious happenings escalate, things with his maid aren't going too well and he sees that his research may have to wait.
Each of these stories are interwoven from two different time periods. Each of them are set to develop the story and intertwine a mystery that has yet to be solved. Soon Ruth realizes that her back story has somewhere to fit in to all of this. Is she ready for this life changing item to be found and brought to the surface or will it stop everything?
The author has done a fantastic job at interweaving the two different story-lines from two different time periods. It was a play on both and she was able to do it very well!
**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Litfuse Publicity.
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