The Fires of Bride

a novel

Plot

Cailleach, the outermost island of the Utter Utters, is so remote that it only emerges from the mist every hundred years or so (ferry permitting). But what is it that seduces Maria, a fugitive artist, into staying so long? Her love affair with Catriona, clan chieftain, GP and witch? The magic touch of the elusive seaweed woman perhaps? Ina Isbister's cloudberry jam? Or could it be her strange empathy with the Sisters of Bride who, in centuries past, worshipped the One True Goddess, victim of an ancient typographical error?

Maria finds new inspiration and fulfilment where women have, since Viking times, repulsed male marauders--be they Harald Bloodaxe, medieval Vatican emissaries, the Reverend Murdo McNeish, or Scotty MacCrumb of Indian Graves, Oklahoma.