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Simple Fire

Selected Short Stories
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( 19 ratings, 1 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Simple Fire by George Mackay Brown delves into themes of island life, community, and tradition. Set in the Orkney Islands, the story explores how ordinary individuals find meaning in their everyday lives. It weaves together personal narratives that highlight the enduring human spirit against the backdrop of nature and history, capturing the essence of island folklore and the passage of time.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3499
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy evocative storytelling that weaves together themes of history, myth, and landscape. The author, George Mackay Brown, is celebrated for his rich, lyrical prose and his ability to transport readers to the Orkney Islands with vivid imagery and deep emotional resonance. If you appreciate stories that explore the complexities of community and tradition through beautifully crafted narrative, this book could be a delightful choice.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

George Mackay Brown was a master of the short story form and produced a steady stream of short fiction collections, starting with A Calendar of Love (1967) and including A Time to Keep (1969) and Hawkfall (1974), as well as his poetry collections and novels.

In this selection, edited and introduced by Malachy Tallack, we explore the author's Orkney and the ups and downs of the crofters and fishermen there.

These magical stories, drawn from ancient lore and modern life, strip life down to the essentials.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The reviews praise George Mackay Brown's Simple Fire for its spiritual depth and unique writing style. Edited by Malachy Tallack and Kathleen Jamie for the author's centenary, the selection showcases powerful poetry and stories. Morag Macinnes describes it as an excellent introduction, particularly for those new to Brown's work, noting Tallack's empathetic understanding of island life.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781846975172

Publisher: Birlinn General

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 June 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited

Contributors:

  • Selected by Malachy Tallack

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 290g

Pages: 336

About the Author

George Mackay Brown (192196) was one of the twentieth century's most distinguished and original writers. His lifelong inspiration and birthplace, Stromness in Orkney, moulded his view of the world, though he studied in Edinburgh and later at Newbattle Abbey College. He produced a regular stream of publications from 1954 onwards. These included A Calendar of Love (1967), A Time to Keep (1969), Greenvoe (1972), Hawkfall (1974), and, notably, the novel Beside the Ocean of Time (1994), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Saltire Book of the Year.

Malachy Tallackhas written for theNew Statesman, theGuardian, theScottish Review of Books,Caught By the Riverand many other publications, online and in print. He won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014, the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015, and is the author of the acclaimed Sixty Degrees North. He is from Shetland, and currently lives in Glasgow.

Also by George Mackay Brown

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  • Beside the Ocean of Time
    WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY AMY LIPTROT SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 1994 WINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD 1994 โ€˜Intimate, humorous, effortlessly combining the strands of history and folklore, the past and the present, this is a deceptively simple book, like a tale told to a child. But its echoes sound on unforgettably. A whole universe is created...
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  • An Orkney Tapestry
    A unique look at Orkney through a poet's eye, An Orkney Tapestry is a celebration of its people, language, and place. It is not written as a continuous historical narrative but as a pattern of history, legend, and folklore. Beautifully illustrated throughout by Sylvia Wishart, a fellow Orcadian, the illustrations show what has been won and lost in Orkney over...
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  • Carve the Runes
    In this new Selected Poems, Kathleen Jamie explores the multi-faceted world of George Mackay Brown's Orkney, the poet's lifelong home and inspiration. George Mackay Brown's concerns were the ancestral world, the communalities of work, the fables and religious stories which he saw as underpinning mortal lives. Brown believed from the outset that poets had a social role and his true...
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