The Valley at the Centre of the World
Malachy Tallack
“It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on.”
Available as Paperback, eBook
Set against the rugged west coast of Shetland, this is a novel about family and inheritance, rapid change and an age-old way of life. The exquisite debut novel from one of Scotland’s most exciting new writers
Longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize
Shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize
Shetland: a place of sheep and soil, of harsh weather, close ties and an age-old way of life. A place where David has lived all his life, like his father and grandfather before him. A place that Alice has fled to after the death of her husband. A place where Sandy, a newcomer but already a crofter, may have finally found a home. But times do change, and the valley that they all call home must change with them, or be forgotten.
The debut novel from one of our most exciting new literary voices, The Valley at the Centre of the World is a story about community and isolation, about what is passed down, and what is lost between the cracks.
“What I’ve been waiting for: a moving, authentic novel of the Scottish islands in the twenty-first century”
Amy Liptrot, Sunday Times Bestselling Author Of The Outrun
See more reviews
“Utterly beguiling”
sunday Times
“Life-affirming … [Tallack] is a careful and precise writer … Given that Mackay Brown and Crichton Smith were two of the best Scottish writers of fiction in the second half of the 20th century, a first novel that sits comfortably alongside their work is a considerable achievement”
Allan Massie
scotsman
“Tallack’s concern here is with the push and pull of larger forces — love, grief, guilt, need, the idea of home itself. They’re potent themes that could, but rarely do, overshadow characters about which he writes with palpable tenderness … A sharp-eyed and evocative painter of place”
daily Mail
“Lyrical … Wonderfully atmospheric and moving”
sunday Express
Malachy Tallack
Malachy Tallack is the author of two non-fiction titles, 60 Degrees North and The Un-Discovered Islands. Both fused nature writing, history and memoir; the first was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award and the second was named Illustrated Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in 2016. Malachy won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014 and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is a singer-songwriter as well as a writer and journalist and lives in Glasgow.
@malachytallack | malachytallack.com
The Heart of Beyond
“Because this, after all, is what fiction is supposed to do. For the few hours or days or weeks that we are held by a book, it should lead us towards other places and other lives. It should un-centre us, and reorient our imaginations.” A brilliant essay by Malachy Tallack (author of The Valley at the Centre of the World) on how fiction can force us to reconsider ‘remoteness’.
Malachy Tallack
Boundless
The Valley at the Centre of the World
“Tallack shows us the past and future colliding in the present, and illustrates the difficulty of maintaining a culture in a world that is shrinking. The Valley at the Centre of the World is a thoughtful, engaging and valuable addition to the literature of islands. It’s difficult to read it and not think of Britain as a whole, an island currently engaged in an ugly push and pull between those who look inwards and those with their telescopes trained beyond the horizon.”
Ben Myers
New Statesman
