Lizzie is bright, cheerful and almost ethereal in her beauty, without having any knowledge of it herself. When she married Neil, a minister for the Church of Scotland, it was because of his looks, spirit and intent to do good. He wanted to take the most difficult job he could find. Setting out for St Kilda with a man she barely knew, pregnant with his child, she had no way of knowing if she was heading for adventure or disaster. For Neil, the move is about atoning for the sins of his past, testing and strengthening his own faith as he encourages others. His love and admiration for Lizzie are constantly challenging him – is he blessed with her love or is she a temptress taking his concentration from his faith? The juxtaposition of being both a husband and a man of the cloth causes him endless guilt and fear.
As they adjust to married life in one of the hardiest places on the planet, where four out of five babies die in the first eight days of their lives, people live in squalid huts and Lizzie can only speak to Neil, their marriage is put under new strain when Lizzie loses her baby. This is a beautiful, rich and incredibly moving account of a marriage, of two people struggling in the most inhospitable of locations to improve the world of those around them, but most of all, simply to survive and raise their family.
Born and brought up in southern Sweden, Karin Altenberg moved to Britain to study in 1996. She holds a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Reading. Her thesis was published in 2001 and won the Nordenstedska Foundation Award. She is currently senior advisor to the Swedish National Heritage Board and is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. Island of Wings is her first novel and she is currently working on her second.
