The Place of Tides

Humane, beautifully paced, gentle, and strangely compelling, The Place of Tides feels like, not only a modern classic, but one we very much need right now -- George Saunders
A magnificent book -- wonderfully unlike any other. The Place of Tides is big-hearted and transporting, a quietly gripping reckoning with self-sufficiency and interdependence, with the lives that make us and the lives that we make. I didn’t want it to end, and I can’t wait to reread it -- Philip Gourevitch
James Rebanks has done a miraculous thing. He takes the reader with him to a stark, remote island on the strangest mission in the toughest circumstances and makes you feel like you’re coming home. A profound, transformative, uplifting story -- Isabella Tree
Tender … exquisite, limpid beauty … a book of stillness, quiet vigilance, and the kind of patience that is measured not in hours but in lifetimes * Financial Times *
What a strange, enchanting book … Rebanks writes of his season with the duck women with elegance, acuity and a rare tenderness … the story is like a fairy tale; timeless except for the occasional intrusion of an outboard engine * Times Literary Suplement *
Lyrical and enchanting … Slowly but surely, Rebanks draws Anna’s story from her. There’s her childhood, mythical tales of giant women, and her deep love of the island … Whether the eider will arrive and in what numbers is a constant ­anxiety, and it’s impossible not to share in Rebanks’s wonder and obvious delight when they do. Even the eggs of the eiders, small, green, speckled and hard, are in themselves things of wonder. Rebanks is an extraordinary writer, and The Place of Tides will linger in the mind for a long time -- James Holland * Telegraph *
In honed prose akin to that of Hemingway, Rebanks weaves a quietly captivating fable about what it means to be true to your roots and your longing to save a dying world * Sydney Morning Herald *
A quietly profound book. It is a story about a still-essential way of living in the modern world and finding a way to keep going. It is also a deft travelogue to one of the world’s wildest seascape … Rebanks paints a picture of a wondrous world. It is one that few of us will ever visit but are all the better for knowing about -- Helen Davies * The Sunday Times *
Here the farmer boldly slips his moorings. Unfolding like a Nordic Decameron, this is a book for a wide readership, with spare prose ... It is a book of bitten beauty, full of keen observations, and, for all its reverence, it is one of reckoning. On the cusp of the Arctic, during a magical harvest, a single-minded farmer is forced to face his own demons * Country Life *
A transfixing, tender and open-hearted account of a spring spent with two remarkable people … Rebanks captures nature’s exquisiteness [and] quietly captivates the human heart. Friendships grow slowly and organically, and, as satisfying as nature itself, the tough yet delicate work strengthens these bonds. By the end, Rebanks’s anxieties about his place in his own world have dropped off him like autumn leaves. It is a beautiful journey back to himself * Irish Times *
The Place of Tides is a magical book, at once a lament for a world in danger of disappearing, and a celebration of an indomitable spirit determined to preserve it. James Rebanks has written a quiet yet ringing masterpiece. -- John Banville
The Place of Tides is terrific – so honest and strange. It’s somehow about eider ducks, middle age, one woman’s breathtaking skill and determination, the collapse of the natural order and everything in between. I think it’s Rebanks’ best book yet -- Sam Knight
Deeply felt and moving … the friendship in the book is hard won, and all the more beautiful for that. It is the most inspiring book I‘ve read for years -- Jenny Linford
The Place of Tides is a captivating portrait of a younger man learning from an older woman, of the great buzzing jungle of the modern world versus the silent wisdom of old ways, of paying attention to your heart instead of the internet, of finding out how to go your own way. It is a revelation about another way of living, long past, but now revived. But what really strikes is the emotional profundity. Rebanks lays himself open, as a man in need of redemption, who finds solace in the remotest of places, and with the most unexpected of people: a Scandinavian duck woman in her seventies. The book will stand as one of the great portraits of a wise, courageous and indomitable woman written in tribute by a grateful man -- Laura Cumming
Deceptively simple, emotionally surprising, beautiful, and true -- Melissa Harrison
A fable-like tale, as beautiful and elusive as the idea of home and self it seeks to recover -- Richard Flanagan
A very beautiful book. Rebanks has written with a chiselled restraint, a Norse toughness, sharp humour, painful wisdom and alertness not quite of our age -- Rory Stewart
A profound reflection on the natural world * Evening Standard *
An extraordinary story, gently told. This was just the book I needed -- Nigel Slater
This is utterly engaging storytelling. The drama, the change, the mystery, the unknown; the details of nature, the moods, the hope and despair; the memories, reflections and learning that emerge out of long lives lived fully: The Place of Tides tells a beautiful story that is profound and moving -- Jane Clarke
The Place of Tides is all that I want from a story: poetic, true and full of feeling -- Marcus Mumford
A love letter to the quiet and complex majesty of a little-known landscape and the women that tirelessly tend to it. It moved, humbled and educated me and made a place I have never set my eyes on suddenly vivid and close -- Vanessa Kisuule
A charismatic portrait of fidelity and the true meaning of home -- Nick Offerman
A vivid portrayal of the fascinating world of the duck women of Norway's Helgeland islands -- Tim Pears
A tender account … the greatest joy of this book lies in the descriptions of the northern seascape – the colours, the Arctic light, the wild things … wilderness and unknowable places return us to the curiosity of childhood. Our humanity is restored * The Tablet *
Surprisingly gripping … Rebanks excels at describing the raw beauty of the island * Daily Mail *
James Rebanks writes like a dream -- Monty Don
A spellbinding story of wildness, healing and nature. A message we all need to hear, told with immense honesty and vulnerability. Magical! -- Julius Roberts
I love this book. It has deepened my world considerably, feathered my spiritual nest -- Rachel Kushner
I've loved everything about the writing, the characters, the kindness, the landscape, the gentle revelations. It's beautiful - a really beautiful and necessary book for these difficult, broken times -- Sophy Roberts