Sally Magnusson
in conversation with Magnus Linklater about her third novel Music in the Dark

Set over one night in a room-and-kitchen in Rutherglen, the book explores the aftermath of the clearance of communities in Strathcarron, Ross-shire, in the 1850s.

Partly inspired by her own Highland great-grandmother, this critically acclaimed novel delves into the experience of women on which the historical record is largely silent – placing a Victorian washerwoman of low class, despised Gaelic race, advancing age and brilliant but injured mind into exhilarating light. A beautifully written story of love and resilience, it explores the effects of brutal community displacement and the healing power of music.

“Truer to the reality of clearance and what came after than many ostensibly factual accounts of those events.” Dr James Hunter