That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz

(Hardback, Main)

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1957. Sonny is working on a whaling ship in the South Atlantic, reckoning with the most vicious storms he has ever seen. It's a brutal way to make a living. When he finally returns to his Shetland home to build a life with his wife and young son, the legacy of his time at sea is felt by all of them.

In present day Shetland, Jack is an old man, living alone in the cottage where he grew up, in the shadow of a hill. And it is here, one evening, that something appears on his doorstep. Something that throws off the rhythm of his solitary existence in the most profound way.

This is a story of unlikely friendship, longing, the power of music and the pull of home. It is about a life revisited - and reimagined.

Reviews

'Praise for The Valley in the Centre of the World: A moving, authentic novel of the Scottish islands in the twenty-first century' - AMY LIPTROT

'Life-affirming . . . [Tallack] is a careful and precise writer' - ALLAN MASSIE

'Tallack's concern here is with the push and pull of larger forces - love, grief, guilt, need, the idea of home itself. They're potent themes that could, but rarely do, overshadow characters about which he writes with palpable tenderness . . . A sharp-eyed and evocative painter of place' - Daily Mail

'Lyrical . . . Wonderfully atmospheric and moving' - Sunday Express

'A desperately beautiful novel. Tallack writes with such tenderness for his characters and quiet awe for the patch of earth he places them upon' - SARA BAUME

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Author Bio

Malachy Tallack is one of the most exciting and critically acclaimed writers to emerge from Scotland in the past decade, and has won praise from Robert Macfarlane, Bernard MacLaverty, Sara Baume, Madeleine Bunting, Will Self and John Burnside, among others. He was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award for 60 Degrees North; The Un-Discovered Islands was named Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2016; and The Valley at the Centre of the World was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

@malachytallack | malachytallack.com