The Gathering Night

A "vivid tale" of prehistoric Scotland: "rival kin groups, loyalty, love and betrayal, salted by dangerous hunts and equally risky shamanistic ceremonies" (Adam Thorpe, The Guardian, UK).   In the Mesolithic period, Alaia and her family live off the land between Grandmother Mountain and the cold sea. But when one of her brothers goes hunting and never returns, the fragile balance of life is upset. Half-starved and maddened with grief, Alaia's mother follows her visions and goes in search of her lost son in this "complex tale of love, revenge, murder and honor" ( The List, UK). The Gathering Night is a story of conflict, loss, love, adventure and devastating natural disaster. This gripping novel by the acclaimed author of The Sea Road is set deep in our stone-age past but resonates as a parable for our troubled planet 8,000 years on. "Employing her considerable skills as a historical novelist, Elphinstone imagines the lives of the hunter-gatherers who thrived in the period from the end of the Ice Age until the adoption of agriculture…Imagination is well-woven with avid research [in] Elphinstone's beguiling prose."—Anita Sethi, Independent on Sunday, UK