The Raven's Nest: a kvöldvaka with Sarah Thomas
Join us at Night Owl Books on Monday, 5th June at 7.30pm, when we'll be joined by author Sarah Thomas in the Icelandic tradition of kvöldvaka.
Pre-order a copy of her stunning memoir, The Raven's Nest, which will be published in paperback on the 1st June, and receive a free ticket to our event - while spaces last!
Please feel free to bring along your knitting, mending, or crafting projects as Sarah reads to us from the book in the Icelandic kvöldvaka tradition, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Select 'local collection' to pick up your copy from Night Owl Books. Copies of the book will be available for collection from Thursday 1st June.
About the book:
Visiting Iceland as an anthropologist and film-maker in 2008, Sarah Thomas is spellbound by its otherworldly landscape. An immediate love for this country and for Bjarni, a man she meets there, turns a week-long stay into a transformative half-decade, one which radically alters Sarah’s understanding of herself and of the living world.
She embarks on a relationship not only with Bjarni, but with the light, the language, and the old wooden house they make their home. She finds a place where the light of the midwinter full moon reflected by snow can be brighter than daylight, where the earth can tremor at any time, and where the word for echo – bergmál – translates as ‘the language of the mountain’. In the midst of crisis both personal and planetary, as her marriage falls apart, Sarah finds inspiration in the artistry of a raven’s nest: a home which persists through breaking and reweaving – over and over.
Written in beautifully vivid prose The Raven’s Nest is a profoundly moving meditation on place, identity and how we might live in an era of environmental disruption.
Softcover, published 1st June 2023.
‘Fascinating’ – Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways
‘Truly a thing of wonder’ – Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places
‘Lyrical [and] thoughtful’ – Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
About the author:
Sarah Thomas is a writer and filmmaker. Her films have been screened internationally, and she is a contributor to the Dark Mountain journal. Her writing has also appeared in the Guardian and the anthology Women on Nature edited by Katharine Norbury. In 2020 she was nominated for the Arts Foundation Environmental Writing Award. She was longlisted for the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize and shortlisted for the 2021 Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize.
- Where will we be meeting?
The event will be held at Night Owl Books, 1 Bridge Street, East Linton, EH40 3AG.
A note on Covid precautions: if you can, please take a lateral before attending, and if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution.