Sarah Thomas - The Raven's Nest

Sarah Thomas joins us to share a story about resilience and learning to belong, set in the elemental landscape of Iceland’s bewitching Westfjords.

Visiting Iceland as an anthropologist and film-maker in 2008, Sarah Thomas was spellbound by its otherworldly landscape. An immediate love for this country and for Bjarni, a man she meets there, turned a week-long stay into a transformative half-decade, one which radically altered Sarah’s understanding of herself and of the living world.

Sarah embarked on a relationship not only with Bjarni, but with the light, the language, and the old wooden house they made their home. She finds a place where the light of the midwinter full moon reflected by snow can be brighter than daylight, where the earth can tremor at any time, and where the word for echo – bergmál – translates as ‘the language of the mountain’. In the midst of crisis both personal and planetary, as her marriage falls apart, Sarah finds inspiration in the artistry of a raven’s nest: a home which persists through breaking and reweaving – over and over. 

Sarah will be in conversation with Claire Carter. 

We can't wait for Sarah to share her story with us. 

'A deeply thoughtful, vivid, enquiring, genre-traversing book, closely attentive to the people and the landscapes with which it dwells. It asks hard questions - and offers no easy answers - about what it means to belong to a place, and to live well upon a part of the earth. Sarah's writing - crisp in its details, patient in its rhythms - draws its readers northwards and inwards upon a fascinating journey.' - Robert Macfarlane

There will be a book signing straight after the event.  'In Icelandic style, Sarah welcomes you to bring your knitting to do whilst listening to this talk!

The Raven's Nest will be available to purchase at the Festival book store over the Festival weekend.

Published by Atlantic Books.