I posted this review of a book I just finished on my book blog today, but I thought I would also post it here as well. I know there are some readers out there, and you might be interested in this book as the protagonist is a textile artist--something you don't often see.
Imagine living here. Linda Gillard's novel, Emotional Geology published by Transita Publishing, is set partially on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, though most of the story takes place in a remote island community called Uist in the Outer Hebrides Islands (is that Hebrides...Hebridean? Sorry, I'm a Plains States girl...we don't get this sort of view). I am sure I have mentioned before that if I could live anywhere it would be somewhere like this. I'm in love with a place I have never even visited.
Emotional Geology is the perfect comfort read. It has been frigidly cold (seriously frigid!), there is nothing but dirty, dingy snow to look at outside, and where there is no snow there is a thin layer of dirt covering every surface. Not terribly pleasant. For the last few days, however, I have had a wonderful place and inviting story to escape into. Emotionally damaged Rose Leonard has come to Uist to set her life straight. She's a single mother of a now grown daughter who spent years in a difficult relationship. She is struggling to control her mental illness. The tiny community of Uist takes Rose in, and there she meets Calum Morrison, a younger man with a few skeletons in the closet of his own. Fairly seamlessly the story goes from the present to moments in Rose's past until we understand exactly why she ended up the way she did. Eventually Rose and Calum's stories will meet and cross and come together again in surprising ways.
Aside from the descriptions of the island (Rose's small house is quite near the beach--wouldn't that be heavenly?), Rose happens to be a textile artist, and anything having to do with needlework is of particular interest to me. When Rose would talk about her work I kept having visions of her making something like what you would see in this magazine--the sort art I only dream of making. Emotional Geology was a thoroughly readable novel for me. Once I fell into the story I had to read through to the end as Rose and Calum's stories were so compelling. As a little side note, I really love the cover design of this book. It really reflects the feeling of the story. I have been told, "The cover is a photo of Rannoch Moor on the Scottish mainland, one of the most desolate places in Scotland. The bus from Skye to Glasgow travels across Rannoch Moor and the EG tree is very easy to spot in the landscape." I have her second novel, A Lifetime Burning, already in the TBR pile.
