Between Grandmother Mountain and the cold sea, Alaia and her family live off the land. 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. The Gathering Night is a story of conflict, loss, love, adventure and devastating natural disaster.
The Gathering Night
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A vivid tale . . . both lyrical and matter-of-fact . . . it persuades us to accept its entirely different value-system without a qualm, and even to regret that humanity ever thought of swapping the hunter's spear for the tiller's spade. --Adam Thorpe, Guardian
Imagination is well-woven with avid research . . . The reader is ultimately engaged by Elphinstone's beguiling prose to listen well to the strange stories of struggle, stoicism and survival coursing throughout this challenging novel. --Anita Sethi, Independent on Sunday
Elphinstone is a fine purveyor or evocative literary historical fiction . . . Excellently researched, it wears that knowledge lightly, concentrating on the human heart of the tale.
--Big Issue
Imagination is well-woven with avid research . . . The reader is ultimately engaged by Elphinstone's beguiling prose to listen well to the strange stories of struggle, stoicism and survival coursing throughout this challenging novel. --Anita Sethi, Independent on Sunday
Elphinstone is a fine purveyor or evocative literary historical fiction . . . Excellently researched, it wears that knowledge lightly, concentrating on the human heart of the tale.
--Big Issue
Book Description
Taking the historical fiction genre to a new level - this is pre-history
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I saw it then, far off under the Sunless Sky. A grey cliff, white-tipped. A cliff made of water."
18 Mar 2011
By Fiona Hurley
Format:Paperback
A geologically-documented tsunami, a scattering of archaeological evidence, the shamanistic beliefs of hunter-gatherer societies: Elphinstone has used these ingredients to recreate a prehistoric world. Her research is admirable, but even more so is her talent for conjuring up the distant past.
This is a story told around a campfire by people whose relationship to nature is elemental. They have rituals for communicating with the spirits of animals, on whom they depend for survival. They joke with each other. They are capable of tenderness one moment and brutality the next. They seem very different from us and yet, in the end, not so different after all.
This is a story told around a campfire by people whose relationship to nature is elemental. They have rituals for communicating with the spirits of animals, on whom they depend for survival. They joke with each other. They are capable of tenderness one moment and brutality the next. They seem very different from us and yet, in the end, not so different after all.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Pag Clack
Format:Paperback
This novel is set in Mesolithic Scotland in the years following the geologically documented tsunami on the east coast of Scotland in 6150 BC following an underwater landslip off the coast of Norway. An entire tribe - for want of a better word - the Lynx People is wiped out, apart from four young men. They set of to find other people. The story depends on what happens to them. One marries into the Heron People and another marries into the Auk People who are at the centre of the action. The other two disappear until the end of the novel.
The Auk People live in a series of seasonal camps moving from one to the other according to whatever animals and plants are plentiful at that time of the year. So Salmon Camp is where they catch salmon during the salmon run, or River Mouth Camp for fishing and other sea foods.
Right at the beginning of the book one young man, Bakar who is an upcoming hunter, goes hunting by himself and never comes back. His mother, Nekane, is grief stricken and eventually becomes a Go-Between who can communicate with the spirit and animal worlds. She plays a crucial role in the second half of the book. Kemen, one of the displaced Lynx People, is adopted by Nekane's family group. At the next Annual Gathering of all the Auk People he meets Osane from another family group. She had been severely beaten and was unable to speak. He marries her. They have a son and, later, she begins to speak again. A hunter - Edur - from another Auk family had intended marrying her and his family claimed that Kemen had stolen her.
The novel comes to a cataclysmic conclusion at an Annual Gathering about five years after the story begins. The truth about Osane's beating and silence emerges as also does the truth about Bakar's disappearance at the beginning of the novel.
The characters are named using Basque-type names, since that language seems to be the earliest surviving European language. Details of Mesolithic life, drawn from modern archaeology, are quietly and convincingly brought into the story. This absorbing Mesolithic murder-mystery is a thoroughly good read which explores ethical questions unobtrusively.
The Auk People live in a series of seasonal camps moving from one to the other according to whatever animals and plants are plentiful at that time of the year. So Salmon Camp is where they catch salmon during the salmon run, or River Mouth Camp for fishing and other sea foods.
Right at the beginning of the book one young man, Bakar who is an upcoming hunter, goes hunting by himself and never comes back. His mother, Nekane, is grief stricken and eventually becomes a Go-Between who can communicate with the spirit and animal worlds. She plays a crucial role in the second half of the book. Kemen, one of the displaced Lynx People, is adopted by Nekane's family group. At the next Annual Gathering of all the Auk People he meets Osane from another family group. She had been severely beaten and was unable to speak. He marries her. They have a son and, later, she begins to speak again. A hunter - Edur - from another Auk family had intended marrying her and his family claimed that Kemen had stolen her.
The novel comes to a cataclysmic conclusion at an Annual Gathering about five years after the story begins. The truth about Osane's beating and silence emerges as also does the truth about Bakar's disappearance at the beginning of the novel.
The characters are named using Basque-type names, since that language seems to be the earliest surviving European language. Details of Mesolithic life, drawn from modern archaeology, are quietly and convincingly brought into the story. This absorbing Mesolithic murder-mystery is a thoroughly good read which explores ethical questions unobtrusively.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Joe
Format:Paperback
I loved this book, it caught me up into the world of the past and at times I could hardly put it down. It is a different world, but there is plenty of detail to bring it to life and the people are, after all, just people. Good fun to try and recognise the locations. Highly recommended if you want to find out more about a little known part of our history.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A n absorbing story
Margaret Elphinstone creates a vivid picture of life in ancient times and draws you in to the concerns of the people living there. A great storyteller.
Published 1 month ago by quill
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gathering Night
Margaret Elphinstone writes about what she knows. Her research is impeccable for every one of her novels. All of which I recommend for a "different" kind of read. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2009 by C. A. Russell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really makes you think
Really makes you think. How do you research a book set so far in the past? Yet everything in this novel is believable. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2009 by F. A. Begbie
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's people, not places . . .
This has been a pretty good holiday read. The book has a decent plot and an unusual setting (the mesolithic era). Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by Mr. A. Rabjohn
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