Description

---

With her young daughter in tow, Mhairi McPhail flees her crumbling marriage in New York and accepts an assignment on the remote Hebridean island of Fascaray, where her grandfather was born. There, she will set up a museum in honor of the island’s celebrated poet, Grigor McWatt, and write his biography. As Mhairi struggles to adapt to island life and put her troubles behind her, she begins to unearth the astonishing secret history of the poet, who has long been regarded by many as the custodian of Fascaray’s—and Scotland’s—soul. Hame builds an intricate world around the life and work of McWatt, weaving the poet’s own writing, extracts from Mhairi’s journal, and tales of Fascaray itself into an extraordinary story of identity, love, belonging and the universal quest for home.

About the Author

---

Annalena McAfee was born in London to a Scottish mother and Glasgow-Irish father, and was educated at Essex University. She is the author of The Spoiler and eight children’s books. McAfee worked in newspapers for more than three decades. She was arts and literary editor of the Financial Times and founded the Guardian Review, which she edited for six years. McAfee lives in London with her hus­band, the writer Ian McEwan.

www.annalenamcafee.com

Praise For…

---

“Hame is transportive and immersive.” —Financial Times

“A remarkable performance. . . . Reflect[s] on the past and present state of Scottish literary and political culture.” —The Scotsman

“Indubitable charm. . . . Clever and provocative.” —The Guardian
 
“Intricately spun. . . . This searching and eloquent novel muses on identity, love and belonging.” —Mail on Sunday

“Richly textured. . . . The emotional complexity of the writing matches the landscape of the island and its surroundings.” —Literary Review

“An impressive achievement. . . . Shines a light on an artistic scene which produced some of Scotland’s greatest poets of the last century.” —Evening Standard

“There are joyful winks and allusions everywhere. . . . ‘Hame’ isn’t so much where you’re born, as where you hing yer bunnet.” —Daily Telegraph

“Bristling with life and passion and wit.” —The Herald

“A hugely entertaining, roller-coaster of a ride through poetry and language.” —The Irish Times

“I was knocked out by this novel. It is rich and layered, passionate and sly.” —James Magnuson, author of Famous Writers I Have Known

“This is story-telling of the highest ingenuity, brimming with whimsy, wit, erudition, and beautiful sentences. Brilliant and irresistible.” —Christopher Buckley, author of The Relic Master

“I enjoyed it immensely. I laughed a lot. The character of Fascaray, its people and history, its weather and sea, and of Grigor and his glorious translations, all are imagined with such great verve and humor and originality, I couldn’t put it down, or not for very long. . . . Wonderful novel.” —Patrick McGrath, author of Constance

“Prodigiously imagined.” —Library Journal

“McAfee’s achievement is considerable as she creates an enjoyable Scotch brew of the real and the unreal and addresses matters of identity and self-invention, the precarious nature of minority languages, and the idea of home.” —Booklist