Raw, visceral and haunting, this astonishing account of a woman's life on a remote island in the Hebrides draws in big themes around solitude and friendship, resiliance and survival, and merits comparison with The Outrun.
Tamsin Calidas is a writer and photographer living in the
wilds of the Scottish Hebrides.
She worked in various roles in advertising, publishing and the BBC
before giving it all up in 2004 to move to a tiny, remote island in
Scotland to run a derelict croft with sheep and horses.
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. * The Sunday Times *
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
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
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 *
Gripping...Tough yet compulsive reading, carried by
crisp, vivid prose. -- Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun
A meditative breath of fresh air. This book will fill your
lungs, sting your eyes and catch in your throat. Soaring prose
like birdsong over the harsh lands that compelled Tamsin
Calidas to breathe deep. -- Ruth Fitzmaurice, author of I Found My
Tribe
The memoir of the year...a lyrical paean to the wild beauty
of the Hebrides. * Vogue *
An extraordinary book of limitless resilience, Calidas'
leaping prose is a love song to the natural world. What she
achieves with an open heart and a will of iron is nothing short of
remarkable. -- Sarah Langford, author of In Your Defence
So raw, so honest, so intense. I didn't want this book to end. --
Sigri Sandberg, author of An Ode to Darkness
Combining intensely beautiful nature writing with the
excavation of deep emotion, this brave, startling book
examines what it really means to lose yourself in nature, and in
doing so find a completely new version of yourself, too. A
powerful, unsettling but ultimately redemptive account of
one woman's deep communion with the natural world. -- Clover
Stroud, author of My Wild and Sleepless Nights
Any preconceptions you may entertain about 'a Londoner, tiring of
the city, moves to a Scottish Island' will be smashed in the first
chapter of Tamsin Calidas' astonishing, raw and
clear-eyed book. Tamsin charts how she comes to terms with loss,
loneliness, hardship and prejudice through immersing herself fully
in her island habitat. I am an Island is a powerful, affecting
book; glittering and visceral, Tamsin's clear-voiced
self-reliance becomes a storm-force of nature in itself. -- Nicola
Chester, Nature Writer, RSPB Columnist and Guardian Country
Diarist
A beautiful book...I urge you to seek it out. -- Jane Garvey
A beautifully written, emotionally intense memoir * Sunday Express
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