Over the Sea to Skye

“Cloud-wrapped mountains, bare hills and rain-lashed lochs...each loch a pool of sapphire blue...” Sally Stewart’s talent for descriptive storytelling quickly brings characters to life and is one reason I loved rediscovering her writings, including ‘Over the Sea to Skye’. Whether or not you’ve ever visited the romantic Hebridean Scottish isle of Skye, Stewart swiftly and magically takes you there in a heartwarming well-spun tale. Catching you away in the power of ‘place’ and time, it’s a story that brings together losses and forgotten family ties, passions and ancient rivalries, all carefully woven to draw the reader into a multilayered mystery. After experiencing malaria, that forced him to take medical leave from aide work in Africa, Iain Macrae is at a loss with the almost simultaneous and sudden death of his father back in Canada. Helping his aloof stepmother pack up his dad’s belongings, Iain finds a letter he feels duty bound to follow through on his dad’s behalf. The letter takes him to Scotland to meet with a lawyer. Iain is intent on completing unfinished family business and feels indifferent to any ancestral ties that might try to lay claim to him. Iain’s chance encounter aboard train to Edinburgh with a stand-offish young Louise Maitland and two quiet children in her tow, seems neither here nor there. However, the unusually sad young boy, Jamie, clinging to his pet border collie Macgregor, can’t help but stir memories in Iain of his own lonely boyhood. The meeting strangely interconnects with his ongoing journey back to his family’s Skye home. There, Iain finds ancient rivalries and history still alive. He feels drawn to stick around whether Louise finds his ‘Canadian ways’ helpful or not. Iain’s unexpected gift for drawing young Jamie out of his silent shell can’t help but make Louise wonder if she and a man who seems to embrace solitude...might at least meet halfway. This book, like all of Sally Stewart’s— is a great read, a story that will linger long after you’ve finished reading it, (and in fact could easily become a favourite ‘re-read’ on your nightstand).