Tannat

This took me longer than I expected. It wasn’t exactly a hard read, but there was this dreamy quality to the prose that I wasn’t entirely sure I liked. It almost feels languid. It’s told from three perspectives: Thorbjorg – a freewoman and witch, Katla – Thorbjorg’s unfortunate thrall, and Bibrau – Katla’s unwanted daughter. All three perspectives are told in the first person which I didn’t entirely like. It is very clear whose section is whose and none of them are very long, but I still wasn’t sure I liked the convention. This isn’t a happy story but it is an interesting one. We follow Thorbjorg and Katla as they travel from Iceland to Greenland in the 10th century and it’s the kind of historical fiction where the magic and spirits are real because the characters believe them to be. There isn’t a lot of magic; just the kind of stuff that’s mixed in with folk tales and rituals and believing in spirits. There’s a lot of Norse mythology mixed in with the threat of Christianity.

I did decide that I liked how everything tied together though, so I’m going with four stars.

I read this for booklikes-opoly square Tomorrowland 34 since it has a child on the cover. Well, a baby. I’m pretty sure that counts. At 450 pages, I get to add $5 to my bank, bringing my total to $114.

Previous update:

41/450 pages