I recently received this book as an advanced reader copy. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The writing was poetically descriptive of the land and the sea which were the backdrop for the story. The story took place in Scotland in the mid 1840s when wealthy landowners had embarked on a mission of clearing the tenant farmers off their land. A minister who had recently joined the split from the Presbyterian church and who needed to earn money to tide him over before his new church was established, took on the paying job of going to a remote island to remove the sole remaining tenant. Rather than being able to accomplish the task in a straightforward manner, the minister was seriously injured in a fall and was nursed back to good health by the tenant. The two, even though speaking entirely different languages and having entirely different lifestyles, managed to develop an understanding of each other which led to an actual friendship. Different people learning to appreciate and care for each other should be a lesson for us all in these chaotic times. I didn't give it 4 stars (I wish there were 1/2-star options) because I thought there was a little too much time spent on the definitions of Norn words, however. I still liked the book and will read more by this author.
