The Glass Woman
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A mysterious and captivating tale of love, fear and superstition set in the Icelandic wilderness . . .
'An Icelandic Jane Eyre' SUNDAY TIMES
'Gripped me in a cold fist. Beautiful' SARA COLLINS
'Enthralling' STACEY HALLS
'Moving and atmospheric' LAURA PURCELL
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1686, Iceland.
When Rósa is betrothed to Jón Eiríksson, she is sent to a remote village.
There she finds a man who refuses to speak of his recently deceased first wife, and villagers who view her with suspicion.
Isolated and disturbed by her husband's strange behaviour, her fears deepen.
What is making the strange sounds in the attic?
Who does the mysterious glass figure she is given represent?
And why do the villagers fear the fast-approaching winter? . . .
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'A perfect, gripping winter read. I loved it' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH
'Crackles with tension. Moving and atmospheric, I couldn't put it down' LAURA PURCELL
'Memorable and compelling. A novel about what haunts us - and what should' SARAH MOSS, author of GHOST WALL
'Evocative, compelling, with a brilliant twist' DAILY EXPRESS
'Intensely written and atmospheric, with an unusual setting' DAILY MAIL
'A chilling tale' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'Like a ghost story told around a winter fire' TIM LEACH, author of SMILE OF THE WOLF
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION DEBUT AWARD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lovely prose and the lulling feel of escape into another time and place help to balance the slow pace of this story of 1686 Iceland from Lea (When the Sky Fell Apart), in which religion has replaced witchcraft, and a young woman teeters between the Church and pagan beliefs. At 25, Rosa agrees to marry a surly bear of a man, Jon Eiriksson, the "bonoi," or community leader, of a nearby settlement. Jon collects taxes from his village, and Rosa knows he will provide for her ailing mother. Rosa travels for four days from Skalholt to Stykkisholmur to live with Jon in an Icelandic turf house perched above a seaside village, where the inhabitants fear Jon and gossip suspiciously about his first wife Anna's death from a mysterious illness. Rosa is isolated when Jon works his farmland or fishes at sea, and because she wonders if Anna may have died from loneliness, Rosa dares to go against Jon's wishes to seek companionship with the locals in Stykkisholmur, but she makes few friends. Mystery and potential danger linger throughout as the story builds to the reveal of what happened to Anna, but the escalation is so gradual that it's near excruciating. Still, with its dreamy prose, Lea's novel will satisfy readers who wish to be submerged in the ways of an old world.
