In the quiet and reflective The Place of Tides, farmer James Rebanks (The Shepherd's Life) describes leaving his English countryside home for the tiny uninhabited island of Fjærøy, near the coast of Norway. He was there to spend a season with Anna Måsøy, a "duck woman" who traveled annually to the isolated island to continue her family's centuries-long tradition of harvesting rare, valuable eiderdown--the small, soft feathers from the breast of the female eider duck.
Rebanks first met Anna on a journalistic assignment and was struck by the transcendent septuagenarian "who had made a life on her own terms." Years later, Rebanks, feeling "unmoored, like a piece of timber drifting on the current," found his thoughts frequently returning to Anna, who agreed to let him work with her on her last harvest.
As he learned more about his teacher and the complex history of her community, he realized that although Anna "was not a poet... her poetry was her life, her work, and the depth of her love for the islands," and that he was gaining more than just the escapism that he had sought.
Rebanks's gentle, evocative writing truly shines, as does his ability to tell a story with unflinching honesty and empathy. In creating this contemplative portrait of a formidable woman and an ancient way of life, he came to comprehend that "Anna's example was simple: if we are to save the world, we have to start somewhere." --Grace Rajendran, freelance reviewer