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The Sealwoman's Gift: the extraordinary book club novel of 17th century Iceland Hardcover – February 8, 2018

by Sally Magnusson (Author)

4.4 5,307 ratings

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In 1627 Barbary pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards. It was a time when women everywhere were largely silent.

In this brilliant reimagining, Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Ásta, the pastor's wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Ásta meets the loss of both her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home: the stories in her head. Steeped in the sagas and folk tales of her northern homeland, she finds herself experiencing not just the separations and agonies of captivity, but the reassessments that come in any age when intelligent eyes are opened to other lives, other cultures and other kinds of loving.

The Sealwoman's Gift is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. The novel is full of stories - Icelandic ones told to fend off a slave-owner's advances, Arabian ones to help an old man die. And there are others, too: the stories we tell ourselves to protect our minds from what cannot otherwise be borne, the stories we need to make us happy.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Two Roads (February 8, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 147363895X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473638952
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 1.42 x 8.66 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,579,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Mnurse

Unusual & fascinating.

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023

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Based on true events, this is the story of Asta, kidnapped from her isolated Icelandic island home by Algerian pirates in 1627. Sold into slavery, along with her two tiny children, she is forced to reconsider all she thought she knew, as well as bear unbearable heartaches. As she awaits word - on her husband, on her two oldest children, on her possible ransome - she finds herself becoming a different version of herself. A story almost beyond belief, this book was, truly, that often misused word 'unputdownable'. It kept me reading well into the night, drawn by the detailed worlds described as well as the likable & believable characters.

One person found this helpful

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Hildur Bruun

love and colour

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2018

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A harsh, bleak and dramatic reality turned into a story so full of life, respect, love and colour ...... even sensuality at moments you least expect. Written in a language so beautiful and smooth that it adds an extra layer on top of the masterfully written story.
I enjoyed this wonderful and emotional journey thoroughly and it leaves me a richer person. It will stay with me for a long time......and when it starts to fade, I look forward to starting over to discover new angles, depths and widths with an extra layer of colours

4 people found this helpful

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Yusuf DeLorenzo

Icelanders in Algiers

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2023

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What surprised and pleased me most about this book was the author’s knowledge and understanding of historical Algiers. While it might have been the easiest thing in the world to malign Algiers for the slavery that was condoned within its whitewashed walls, the author showed true appreciation for the social and cultural realities in Ottoman Algiers.
AJ Lewis

2 people found this helpful

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Larry Feign

Soars like birds

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2020

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It took me a few chapters to warm up to this novel, as it switched point of view among a host of characters, but once it settled mostly on the experiences of Ásta, an Icelandic pastor's wife kidnapped by Barbary pirates, the story and the prose soared like the birds that form such a strong motif throughout the book.

Based on actual events in the 17th century, in which pirates abducted an entire community from an island off the coast of mainland Iceland and sold them into slavery in Algiers, the author weaves together stories of love, faith, identity, and redemption, but doesn't stop there. This is also a story about the power of story itself in human experience, as she deftly incorporates Icelandic sagas and tales of Scheherazade and the ways in which these tales guide culture and thinking.

After a slow start, this turned into the most deeply moving work of fiction I've read this year.

3 people found this helpful

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James Elfers

Excellent Debut Novel That Unfortunately Pulls Its Punches.

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2022

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This is an excellent first novel based on a true story, still considered Iceland's greatest tragedy. However, I realize that any author must use their imagination when filling in the unknowns. Magnusson does a very good job and tries to bring life and emotions to a woman's past that is barely a skeleton. My main complaint is that the author soft-pedals Barbary slavery. There is simply NO way that Celliby, the Morrish owner of Asta, will wait THREE years before he compels her to share his bed, impending ransom or not. I understand, and the historical record seems to show that he was a more enlightened slave owner than most, but he is still a man in an extremely patriarchal culture with access to any woman he wants. Asta being fair-haired and freckled is a novelty, the Moor simply would not pass up. I suppose a cross-cultural love story is preferable to the more likely historical scenario of Asta being ravished within weeks or months after her husband was sent to Denmark. Asta is also given a comical amount of freedom in the city of Algiers itself. Slaves, especially female slaves simply did not have that kind of freedom at the time. Male slaves could and did experience that kind of freedom on occasion, but those were mostly slaves with special skills or abilities. Female slaves were used for domestic duties and to warm beds. Asta would have been no different. The idea of her out in the city and compelled at knifepoint to service the captain that abducted her to generate sympathy from her owner and set off the "love" story, is so ahistorical to be almost offensive.
A much more likely scenario is that Asta suffered from PTSD from the point of her capture. Losing her children and being compelled to sleep with her owner perhaps hundreds of times or more, only amplified that situation. But, stunned, barely functioning heroines doing what they must to simply survive don't make for the most compelling reading so Asta is "resilient" and "inventive" whereas the actual historical Asta was simply trying to hold her battered psyche together. Her return home is really no mystery. Her children were lost to her, the Moor used her to slake his lust, despite the supposed advantages that Algiers offered, Asta was hurting and thought that perhaps a return home would ease that hurting at least a little bit. The fact that she held on to her faith, may seem nearly miraculous, but she was a pastor's wife, with everything else stripped from her, her name, her children, her self-agency, faith was the only thing she COULD hold on to. The softening of slavery is almost unconscionable and NEVER would have occurred had this novel been portraying slavery in say, the American South. The fact that it occurred four hundred years ago does NOT mean that Barbary slavery was any kinder or gentler than slavery of the nineteenth century.
Asta was a commodity. Her value was solely in her domestic skills and malleability in the bedroom. Those are the facts of life for EVERY female slave in recorded history. The author could have highlighted this injustice, instead, there is a "love" story unlikely in the extreme. Had Celleby truly loved Asta or she, him, he never would have ransomed her. After so many years in his bed, the Moor was probably looking for a bit more excitement. The cash he received for Asta could buy a very pretty, much younger slave, and it probably did. Not exactly a love story is it?

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2018

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Amazing info of the time. Praise for the prose.

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2021

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A beautifully written and thought provoking tale in a historical setting.

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2019

I couldn't stop reading. A passionate story, based on the kidnapping and selling into slavery of 400 Icelandic men, women and children in 1627. Magnusson has told the story with heart and feeling. She made Asta and her fellow captives come alive.
Who knew that the corsairs from the Barbary coast went out deliberately capture and hold for ransome Europeans? I didn't.
For lots of reviews go to Amazon.uk
Bought and reviewed on Amazon.de

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L. C.

Interesante

Reviewed in Spain on March 15, 2023

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Un libro es para leer. Les compro siempre para leer. ¿Entiendes?

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Birgit

Un petit trésor !

Reviewed in France on February 25, 2020

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A lire absolument !!

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GJFree

Enthralling !

Reviewed in Germany on July 18, 2019

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I couldn't stop reading. A passionate story, based on the kidnapping and selling into slavery of 400 Icelandic men, women and children in 1627. Magnusson has told the story with heart and feeling. She made Asta and her fellow captives come alive.
Who knew that the corsairs from the Barbary coast went out deliberately capture and hold for ransome Europeans? I didn't.
For lots of reviews go to Amazon.uk

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Very Powerful story!

Reviewed in Australia on October 7, 2023

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Slow to get started but once it unravels there are wonderful insights to life choices. It’s a story of love on some many levels. It’s about the past, the current and what the future will hold. The challenge of what you believe and what’s important to you! To be known and to be loved!

caroline miller

Well written fantastic novel with great historical infornation,

Reviewed in Spain on March 13, 2021

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This is a fantastic read a well written novel with great historical information a nice long read.Recommended to all my bookworm friends too.

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