The Place of Tides

By: James Rebanks

Narrated by: Bryan Dick

Brought to you by Penguin.

We are all in need of lights to follow.

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.

Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.

This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, building little wooden huts that will protect the ducks come spring; to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for the woman to gather, like feathered gold.

Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not at all what he had previously thought. As the weeks pass, what began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.

©2024 James Rebanks (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

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)

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)

Deceptively simple, emotionally surprising, beautiful, and true (Melissa Harrison)

An extraordinary story, gently told. This was just the book I needed (Nigel Slater)

A charismatic portrait of fidelity and the true meaning of home (Nick Offerman)

A fable-like tale, as beautiful and elusive as the idea of home and self it seeks to recover (Richard Flanagan)

Incredible!

I am a big fan of James Rebanks’ previous books and almost fell of my chair when i saw that he had visited my home area of the Helgeland islands. He has done incredibly well in capturing the culture and traditions of the people as well as the uniqueness of the eiderdun women. I recommend it to one and all