'The second section describes the island archipelago of Saaremaa off the Estonian coast, but has obvious resonances with the sprinkle of Summer Islands for example, over on the west, or places like Sangobeg and Ardnichen, in the north.
Tha an earrann èisteachd seo, bho 'The Envoy of the Black Pine' le Clio Gray, gu bhith air fhoillseachadh san Lùnastal 2008. Tha e air a leughadh an seo leis an ùghdar.<br /> <br /> 'The second section describes the island archipelago of Saaremaa off the Estonian coast, but has obvious resonances with the sprinkle of Summer Islands for example, over on the west, or places like Sangobeg and Ardnichen, in the north.<br /> <br /> Strange are the names of those islands: Abruka, Hiiumaa, Kassari, Prangli, Vislandi... More than a thousand of them, almost two, if each rocky outcrop and reef were known, or counted, by any but the few who wedged their boats into bays too small to beach a whale-bone, to cast out their nets and lines and drag in their catch, boots jacked into crevices to halt their fall when the wind changed direction, or a wave loomed up behind them like an anvil, brutal and unexpected and three times the size of the ones that had gone before. <br /> <br /> Tamas Swarthaar knew nothing of those other islands, knew only this small part of the bay that stretched out from Hiiumaa, and looked now across the mist-shivered causeway that linked him to his home, knew he would have to speed his work, saw the storm clouds lift from off the mainland as the sun began to sink, as if a vast blue heron had drawn its wings across the sky. He'd been stranded here once a few years before having misread the signs of the sky, and the petrels and puffins that had huddled back into their holes. The wind had swept so swiftly across the bay it had scoured the surface of the sea clean over his narrow pathway, left him cleaving to the rock with his bare hands, the spray drenching his back, filling his mouth, the fish-creel ripped from his shoulders and almost taking him with it. The few seals that had wallowed on the spare yard of shingle below him, had flumped and galumphed back into the rising waves, popped up their heads a bit way out and stayed there, staring up at him, their brown eyes full of pity, and wondering why he didn't follow.'<br /> <br /> Rugadh Clio Gray ann an Siorrachd Iorc; chuir i seachad mòran de a h-òige ann an Devon, agus tha i air a bhith a' fuireach air a' Ghàidhealtachd fad chòig bliadhn' deug. Tha i ag obair aig an leabharlann sgìreil aice ann am Baile Dhubhthaich agus a' cur seachad an còrr dhe h-ùine a' sgrìobhadh leabhraichean. Choisinn i duais litreachais Harry Bowling ann an 2004, air a leantainn le Duais na Sgeulachd Goirid aig Scotsman/Orange ann an 2006 airson 'I Should Have Listened Harder', air a sheatadh ann am mèin-phrìosan ann an Saibìria. Chaidh a cruinneachadh de sgeulachdan goirid, 'Types of Everlasting Rest', fhoillseachadh ann an 2007.<br /> <br /> Na beachd fhèin 's e leabharlannaiche nàdarra a th' ann an Clio leis mar nach urrainn dhi ach a bhith a' dèanamh liostaichean agus a' cruinneachadh fiosrachadh gus an cruthaich i a plotan spreagail. Tha a sgrìobhadh air aire dhaoine a tharraing. Bha buaidh aig obair Clio air Jan Rutherford aig Comhairle nan Leabhraichean Albannach agus chuir i gu càraid-oideachaidh i, Ailean Bisset, gus an dèanadh i obair air a ciad nobhail - 'Guardians of the Key' (2006), a' chiad fhear ann an sreath de ghaoir-sgeòil eachdraidheil le prìomh-charactar Whilbert Stroop ann, fear a bha a' lorg dhaoine air chall agus fear nach b'urrainn ach a bhith a' dèanamh liostaichean. Chaidh an leabhar-leantainn, 'The Roaring of the Labyrinth', fhoillseachadh ann an 2007.