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I Am An Island

The Sunday Times bestselling memoir of one woman’s search for belonging

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I Am An Island

By: Tamsin Calidas
Narrated by: Tamsin Calidas
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Brought to you by Penguin.

'Completely astonishing…the fragility of life transcended and restored by the triumphant pull of a determination to survive' - Juliet Nicolson

When Tamsin Calidas first arrives on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, it feels like coming home. Disenchanted by London, she and her husband left the city and high-flying careers to move the 500 miles north, despite having absolutely no experience of crofting, or of island life. It was idyllic, for a while. But as the months wear on, the children she'd longed for fail to materialise, and her marriage breaks down, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation.

Injured, ill, without money or friend she is pared right back, stripped to becoming simply a raw element of the often harsh landscape. But with that immersion in her surroundings comes the possibility of rebirth and renewal. Tamsin begins the slow journey back from the brink.

Startling, raw and extremely moving, I Am An Island is a story about the incredible ability of the natural world to provide when everything else has fallen away - a stunning book about solitude, friendship, resilience and self-discovery.

©Tamsin Calidas 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Marriage Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Inspiring
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Critic reviews

A wondrous, sensuous memoir of salt-stung survival… clear-eyed and poetic prose. Over and above everything else, I Am an Island is a hymn to the wild, full of fine observation of the natural world. A message that rings true for these testing times.
Calidas is a supple, sensuous writer - deeply empathetic... Her account is shot through with moments of intense brightness.
This is a startling book, a vivid and terrifying reminder of how an island can seduce, madden - and ultimately sustain those brave enough to endure its confines. (Madeleine Bunting, author of Love of Country)
An extraordinary book, a wild and redemptive account of reaching rock bottom and swimming back into the light. I’m awed by Tamsin's courage, her resilience and huge heart. Her island will stay with me for a very long time. (Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City and To the River)
The best book I have read in more than a decade. Each page is poetry. Tamsin's story is both heartbreaking and inspiring but ultimately about how the power of nature can heal. The perfect memoir for us all right now. Absolutely stunning. What an incredible woman. (Susannah Constantine)
The memoir of the year...a lyrical paean to the wild beauty of the Hebrides.
An island tale like no other. An unforgettably moving and compulsive read, steeped in anguish and beauty. A book that is unafraid to stare deep into the abyss, and still find a way forward. The story of a woman completely broken by life, and her fifteen-year struggle to find the inner strength to restore herself, through sheer determination, and by immersing herself in solitude. (Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country and Deer Island)
Completely astonishing. Using language of shimmering beauty, Tamsin Calidas describes the unravelling of a relationship with such exquisitely small stitches that the eventual thread-baring of her physical and emotional safety, her sense of identity and purpose, blows in like a cold slap of Hebridean wind. A Hardyesque, stripped back connection to the landscape emerges. And yet only with the fragmentation of everything that matters is the fragility of life transcended and restored by the triumphant pull of a determination to survive. (Juliet Nicolson)
Gripping...Tough yet compulsive reading, carried by crisp, vivid prose. (Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun)
Raw, painful, storm-battered writing. Here's what it means to be truly isolated.
All stars
Most relevant
This is the most beautiful, evocative, descriptive and spiritual book I have ever heard. Superb.

Essential Reading

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I find myself struggling with life my heart and body in such pain.
On listening to this book it encouraged me and gave me strength.
I recommend listening to this and let the words fill you with strength.
Thank you

Time of struggle

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Very descriptive and often disturbing portrayal of life in an island community. An uncomfortable read for those still staying there! I definately would have preferred to read this as the monotonous voice of the author just killed the book for me and I struggled to keep going. Had to listen to some chapters several times as had just zoned out

Read the book as authors voice is so monotone

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Her place writing is soulful and beautiful yet her use of language when describing the locals is bordering on offensive and definitively othering. But perhaps they were as awful as she writes - for me it doesn’t quite ring true in places. In this way it reminded me of Wanderland by Jini Reddy. Both books seem to be self absorbed and overly judgemental - her only friend also seems to have been an outsider - maybe that is a result of terrible treatment elsewhere??? Needed a stronger edit as she described digging up a dead sheep in a chapter that follows her fracturing both hands - it doesn’t ring true without a sense of time or acknowledgment of the amount of help she did or didn’t receive. She also mourned for years two babies that failed to implant which makes me think the author feels everything at great depths I’m sure the loss of hope and what might have been was devastating but but it was simply too much for my tastes. If you like a misery memoir it will be a good purchase.

Beautifully written but…

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Loved It. Loved It. Deep and Honest. A wonderfull reminder of our Human resiliance .

Thank You. Thank You.

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