2020 - Discussion Thread Q2 - The Sealwoman's Gift

What a ride. I often complain about not being able to *get* books set a long time ago (this one was set in the 1600s!), therefore often making the “set over 200 years ago” category the hardest one for me in the 40BC, but books like these (and the other one I read this year set in a similar time in history) only goes to show that a good author can make it work. There was so much packed into this one, the major premise being the Turkish abductions on an Icelandic island. I’m not very well-versed with either Turkish or Icelandic history, so I didn’t know of this event before. Parts of the book are based on true events (and the words of the pastor at the start of each chapter are actual excerpts from his diary), though I didn't work this out until the end.  

Oh, and a tip for anyone who hasn’t yet read this and wants to: There’s a list of characters (in alphabetical order) at the back of the book, I found this immensely useful. Otherwise it felt to me like there were far too many people called “Jon”, and I was getting them mixed up all the time. I also wasn’t aware of the Icelandic surname convention i.e. a person’s “last name” would be (something that sounds like their father’s first name) + “sson” for a boy and “dottir” for a girl, once I’d worked that out it was far easier to follow who was who! More thoughts below, whited out for possible spoilers.

I’m not sure how much of the parts where Pastor Olafur was separated from his family are based on true happenings, perhaps written after his wife’s return, but if they were the product of the author’s imagination they were indeed realistic. I have my doubts that Asta would recount to her husband, to such great detail, her relationship with the Moor... Regardless of how much was fiction and how much was based on true story, the descriptions were so vivid I could almost imagine myself being in that Algerian slave market, and it’s clear how much research has gone into writing this book. According to Wikipedia, Asta returned to Iceland 10 years after she was abducted (Olafur only spending a year away – young Jon seems remarkably grown up for a boy who would have been only about 8 years old at the time of having that final conversation with his Mamma), it certainly seemed like a lot longer for both of them in the book!

The dilemmas were very interesting to think about e.g. what would I have done in Asta’s situation when she was given the opportunity to be ransomed and allowed to go home – although this comes at a cost of leaving her son behind. This would essentially not be an issue in today’s world (even an era prior to the Internet, when it was reasonably possible to travel the globe without risking death or taking absolutely years to get from one country to another), as essentially it was a decision that she wouldn’t ever get to reverse in a lifetime. I’m slightly surprised she made the decision that she did. I can’t help feeling in the “after her return” chapters that she regretted choosing this path, although she seems to find peace with it towards the end. This part of the book also had more of the mythical/elf bits, which I didn’t quite get (overall). A bit of a pity, I sort of wish I could appreciate this Icelandic custom a bit more (and indeed better understand the title of the book!).

One thing I particularly liked was the way in which Magnusson painted the slave masters themselves as having very different characters – and portraying the notion that not all of them are complete monsters. While there are some (like the pasha is implied to be) who presumably abuse their slaves in different ways, others are just family men in themselves who happen to find themselves in a position of privilege. The fact that there are many former slaves who are free men or women in the Algiers is testament to the fact, I feel, that there is a genuine attempt among certain slave-masters to help them into a position of freedom.

I suppose the other major talking point in this one, is the Christian/Muslim divide. I never really expected the children to grow up anything but Muslim, Asta in particular seems wistful about this point (and herself vehemently refuses to convert in exchange for what would certainly have been a better life, married to a man that she clearly has feelings for), but especially Jon would have known nothing different. He was far too young to be aware of his father’s profession as a pastor, and a boy at that age would understandably want to fit in with his peers.

Thank you pennylane for choosing this one for the book club. I would never have picked it up on my own (I don’t even know which section in my favourite bookstore I might expect to find it!), and it turned out to be an interesting lesson in history of two parts of the world that I know close to nothing about, and how religion plays into the picture. Amidst all the family drama, of course, which always makes for a good plot.