Selkie Dreams

by Kristin Gleeson

Overview

Belfast and Alaska 1889.

A young woman haunted by her mother's death embarks on an Alaskan adventure to escape an unwanted marriage.Cunning and determination get her there in the guise of teaching at the Tlingit Indian mission. But Alaska proves more difficult than she imagined, and the hope that this new place will transform her seems out of reach with the impossible Mrs Paxson and the mysterious, troubled Tlingit Indian, Natsilane.

'...this is a beautifully calibrated and vivid and interesting historical novel about love and death in the North American wilderness, ...the characters are fascinating, ... the evocation of the natural world and the social customs and practices of Tlingit is assured and convincing, and... the story, albeit melancholy, is unfailingly engaging. I wish it well.' Carlo Gebler, The Siege of Derry

'A fable as gentle as Irish laughter and as lyrical as Irish song. A magical love story of a girl who must cross the world to find the one place where she can belong.' Karen Maitland, The Raven's Head

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780993156779
Publisher:	TIG Beag Press
Publication date:	11/27/2015
Series:	Celtic Knot
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Originally from Philadelphia, Kristin Gleeson lives in Ireland, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, where she teaches art classes, plays harp, sings in an Irish choir and runs two book clubs for the village library. She holds a
Masters in Library Science and a Ph.D. in history, and for a time was an administrator of a national archives, library and museum in America. There she handled the letters, diaries, reports and artifacts of Alaskan missionaries and assisted Tlingit Indians in recovering their land and their past. Later, she served as a public librarian in America and in Ireland. She has also written history freelance and published articles and essays in reference works and academic books. Myths and other folk tales have always fascinated her and she combined her love of these tales with her harp playing and performed as a professional harper/storyteller at events in Britain, America and Ireland.

Table of Contents

Historical Adventure Fiction

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I don’t know if Selkie Dreams is the first novel to combine the story of a lonely nineteenth century Belfast childhood, a Presbyterian mission in Alaska, and the life and culture of the Alaskan native people, the Tlingit, that the mission serves, but I do know that this is a beautifully calibrated and vivid and interesting historical novel about love and death in the North American wilderness, that the characters are fascinating, that the evocation of the natural world and the social customs and practices of Tlingit is assured and convincing, and that the story, albeit melancholy, is unfailingly engaging. I wish it well."
—Carlo Gebler, author of The Siege of Derry

Editorial Reviews

"I don’t know if Selkie Dreams is the first novel to combine the story of a lonely nineteenth century Belfast childhood, a Presbyterian mission in Alaska, and the life and culture of the Alaskan native people, the Tlingit, that the mission serves, but I do know that this is a beautifully calibrated and vivid and interesting historical novel about love and death in the North American wilderness, that the characters are fascinating, that the evocation of the natural world and the social customs and practices of Tlingit is assured and convincing, and that the story, albeit melancholy, is unfailingly engaging. I wish it well.'"
—Carlo Gebler, author of "The Siege of Derry"

From the Publisher