I really loved this book. It is beautifully written with lovely subtle humour throughout. I thought it was a good story based on factual information of the day and the touch of the fairy world adds to the complexity. The medical issues bring home the awful ignorance of the doctors of the day and their attempts to improve the conditions for their patients.
I really liked the main character and had such sympathy for her situation - and for her husband who obviously couldn't understand "women's problems"!!!
I read and enjoyed The Sealwomans Gift but I thought this one was even better . Thoroughly recommended
.

I really wanted to adore this novel however it turns out it is just not for me. I found the style quite distant and it was therefore hard to engage with Isobel. She's cold somehow and not because of her grief.

I'm not a fan of split narration generally but I found this switch particularly jarring. Similarly with the parallel story of Victoria and Albert. I found these remarkable people to be portrayed without much nuance or depth.

It often reads like a work of non-fiction: a day in the life of... the eReader formatting may not have helped. I don't know.

This novel feels a bit like a wasted opportunity.

This is a well-written and well-researched book, and the story is a good one. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. It seems very long, and the author seems anxious to show all her research, which makes for a rather slow read. I also found the whole faery business a bit silly.

Full review to come slightly nearer publication but honestly, I liked this one even more than The Seal woman’s gift. It was a wonderful blend of myth and history and Victorian propriety, featuring a quest for identity in a changing world but a still restrictive society. Beautiful, poignant and dark in the right places.

A masterful interweaving of fact and fiction in this tale of Victorian industry and faery shenanigans.
The introduction to the main characters is thorough and not rushed, giving you a real sense of who they are and why they find themselves by a network of lochs, trying to advance medicine and dealing with their own grief at a series of miscarriages. The contrast with Victoria and Albert is deftly done.
I found the character of Kirsty the least convincing or interesting, but she served her purpose and the final narrative twist was a good one, if a little hurried.
I will be taking the author’s advice and researching the real Robert Kirke, as I can see why his life, death and subsequent legend sprinting up around him gripped her imagination so.

A story based on the building of the aqueduct system in the City of Glasgow that carried fresh drinking water during the cholera epidemic, the story highlights the difficulties in building such an efficient system which was later inaugurated by Queen Victoria.
Our protagonist, Isabel Arid, the wife of a doctor falls in love with a writer and an Episcopalian minister, who dies two centuries before. As you can guess, the story has elements of magical realism, which didn't always sit well with me.
This is clearly a well-researched novel that is partly true and partly fictional. Magnusson is a terrific writer but it was the plot that let me down, The author, however, gave me memorable characters and a fragile backdrop that was enlightening and entertaining.

I enjoyed this but found it extremely slow to get going, I enjoyed the amount of work and research the author had clearly put in, based on real events it really shows she knows her stuff. I enjoyed the faery/ fake aspects but for me the rest was just lacking. The story wasn’t strong at all and changing POV wasn’t done very well, not for me sadly.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Beautifully written atmospheric literary fiction at its best,The best kind of read drew me in made me turn up the pages so atmospheric so lyrical highly recommend.#netgalley#johnmurraypres

I found this quite slow to start,but once it became apparent what Kirke was and what he was after,it had me firmly in its grip.
A good tale of the faery folk,who are nasty pieces of work in the best books.
A nice conclusion when you realise who the story is being told to.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Sally magnusson has done it again what a truly inspirational author
I truly loved this tale and was hard going at times due to the content but can highly recommend

I do admire Sally Magnusson’s writing skills, displayed to terrific effect in this, her second novel. A work of fiction based on several factual strands - the engineering feat of bringing clean loch water to Glasgow, the pioneering work in anaesthesia and antiseptics, the teaching of Florence Nightingale, the attachment Queen Victoria felt towards the Scottish highlands - all interesting stuff. She is particularly good at writing in distinctive, individual narrative voices - from the ex-crofter Kirsty to the minister Kirke - and I applaud her for this, as so often books are spoiled for me by all the characters sounding the same. I took to the characters immediately, the redoubtable Kirsty of course but especially the doctor’s wife Isabel who struggles to cope with multiple miscarriages in a society where procreation is a woman’s sole function.

Based on a real person, Robert Kirke’s story was fascinating and, as Sally Magnusson writes in her afterword, she will be pleased if his inclusion prompts readers to research his life and discover what a thoughtful, humane man he was, ‘whose tolerant views and scholarly achievements have been eclipsed by the legend that curled itself around him after his death’. The faery element as depicted here, though, fell flat for me as a realistic threat.

And a final niggle. I had hoped throughout that Isabel was going to find her vocation among the poor women in the tenements of Glasgow and so she does, to a certain extent. What I couldn’t square with Isabel’s character, though, is that she didn’t rescue Kirsty’s sister Nancy when she had the chance. A little neat, perhaps, but that would have made me happy.

I really enjoyed this book, the overall sinister tone and the feeling of what might go wrong was strong throughout and made me feel strongly for the characters and what might be their fate.

It's a great mixture of Victorian society and science with the secret commonwealth, the world of the faeries that is so easily dismissed and yet not so easily avoided.

The main character Isabel struggles with notions of Victorian womanhood and pleasingly pushes the boundaries of what's appropriate for a woman of her social standing, making her a very human and likeable woman of her time. Her meetings with Robert Kirke, her friendship with Kirsty and her fluctuating relationship with her husband all help to make her a real and feeling character.

I liked the mix of almost-fact and conjecture, and the story of building a fresh water supply for Glasgow is such a practical subject it only makes the dealings with the faeries more strange.

Slightly odder is the occasional appearance of Victoria and Albert, who liven things up a bit but don't really get involved in the main story, though they do add some interesting insights of their own.

The writing style draws you on through the book and makes for a very satisfying read. Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray Press for sharing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It is Scotland in the 1850s. Isabel has had a series of miscarriages and doesn’t have the longed for baby. Her husband, Alexander, and she are becoming distant as they struggle to cope with their losses. Alexander throws himself into his role as the Doctor for the huge project at Loch Katrine where tunnels are being dug to provide fresh water for Glasgow. He is astonished when Isabel decides to accompany him there, where she is isolated amongst the hills. There is little company bar a navvy’s wife, Kirsty and the strange clergyman Robert Kirke.

I loved Sally Magnusson’s first book, The Sealwoman’s Gift which I can heartily recommend. Consequently I had high expectations for this book. I don’t feel that it lived up to these expectations and I was quite disappointed.

The characters are good – Isabel is an intelligent woman who is constantly overlooked within society. What use is a woman who fails to bear children? Her husband does belittle her – though that is common to the time. She has fight & is intelligent and a character that I liked. The other characters also worked quite well for me – Alexander was quite aloof & trying hard to keep his feelings buttoned up, Robert Kirke is strange & Kirsty also has a distinct personality.

I very much enjoyed the historical background of this book. It was interesting to see how Scotland dealt with the terrible problems of getting fresh water to the cities.

It was the story itself that didn’t work for me. A lot of it is set around the fairy/fey folk of Scotland’s folklore. I never felt that they were ever fully explained and brought to life fully. It was all a bit wishy washy. There is no real depth or richness of description. The plot itself is quite weak and fairly uninteresting. There is a side plot with Victoria & Albert which didn’t seem to really work & was quite unnecessary. The book also tended to wander between different people & historical times without much notice.

It is a great shame when the author has created a good historical background with sound characters that the plot just doesn’t live up to this. The rich descriptions and vibrant life which were characteristic of The Sealwoman’s Gift are missing from this work. Not her best work.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

4-5 stars.

I’m still a bit stunned actually. I think this book is fantastical, magical and mystical and I love that it is set within real events and with characters of the time. The timescale is 1856 to 1859, the main setting is Loch Katrine and Loch Chon (which means dog in Gaelic) in the Trossachs. There is a huge public health scheme to provide clean water for Glasgow by building a series of aqueducts and tunnels from Loch Katrine 26 miles to a reservoir for clean water. Cholera is rife and Glasgow’s insanitary conditions are a perfect breeding ground. The central characters are Isabel and Alexander Aird, a surgeon hired by the construction company to care for injured navvies and Robert Kirke, a minister who died in 1692 and reappears in 1856. What????!!! You’ll have to read the book to find out where he’s been but I’ll give you a hint .... it’s all to do with the ‘sithichean’ or fairies. The story is told principally by Kirsty McEchern who’s husband James is a navvy, Kirsty goes to work for Isabel and a friendship develops and by Kirke, interspersed with letters from Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.

Where do I start to say what I love about this book as there so much! First of all, it’s so beautifully written and I am full of admiration for Sally Magnusson. The characters are good especially Isabel, Alexander, Kirsty and the enigma of Kirke - strange, menacing, malevolent and you can feel his restless energy and purpose. To my great surprise, I love the sithichean element too and I can understand how in a country as achingly beautiful as Scotland (which speaks deep into my soul) where the air has a mystical quality, the way that light shines on it’s many lochs and the way the wind moves the water, it’s no wonder that superstitions arose. The setting gives solace to Isabel’s aching heart as she has suffered the loss of many babies and it gives her an intoxicating freedom she didn’t have in stifling Glasgow society. As an historian it’s also no wonder that the social and medical history appealed to me as well as the marvels of the much needed public health schemes. The descriptions of Glasgow which has grown exponentially partly due to the industrial revolution and the clearances are graphic and the engineering aspect is fascinating too. There are some glorious descriptions of the opening of the works in October 1859 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and I do like their inclusion in the tale and it is relevant as Albert is a big supporter of such schemes. I really like the ending as people hurtle pell mell after Kirke to try to stop his evil intent. My only negative is that it is hard at times to work out who is narrating but it’s probably due to this being an uncorrected copy and hence 4 not 5 stars.

Overall, a wonderful, magical tale which is beautifully written and artfully weaves fact with fiction (or is it ...................)

With many thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for the ARC.

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley and John Murray Press for sharing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this a lot more than I did. There's a lot of historical context with regard to the building of the waterworks at Loch Katrine in the 19th century and the good it would do to battle cholera. I like many parts of the story of the story between Robert Kirke and Isabel Aird. Isabel is a very sympathetic character, having gone through eight pregnancies in as many years and losing each child at some point. Not to mention her place in the isolated community while the building was happening.

Unfortunately I didn't like much of the sub-plot with regard to Victoria and Albert, especially earlier in the book. I just felt it was unnecessary and I didn't see it supporting the main plot all that well. Maybe if it has to be there, make it a single side chapter towards the end to work around the opening of the waterworks.

What I found really hard to handle, though, was the way the story shifted in voice from one character to the next with little or no indication that we're reading from another character's voice. Perhaps this will be clearer in the final book but I found myself having to go back so many times to reread because I didn't realize there was a change. This could make the story a lot more readable than it currently is.

I do commend the writer for the interesting premise. I do like to see a bit of supernatural woven into the realistic sometimes. Perhaps with further editing this would work a lot better for me.

I couldn’t wait to read this book as I really enjoyed Sally Magnusson’s first novel.

The story is inspired by folklore surrounding the death of the minister Robert Kirke in 1692. It follows the life of Isabel Aird, 150
Years later, as she struggles with her role in life as a Victorian lady trying to fit in with the social norms of her time and her ability to start a family.

This book is beautifully written and the descriptions of the Scottish landscape particularly around the Trossachs.. The imagery is very evocative and you can imagine the characters walking around this landscape with the fairies that inhabit the glens. There are also many historical references to the way people were living in poverty in Glasgow in the 1800s, which are as equally well described. I think these descriptions add an important contrast to the landscape of the Highlands and fairies.

There are several voices in this story that switch around to give different perspectives including Prince Albert. All the voices are quite different and I felt there perhaps were too many. The story could have easily been told by the character Kirsty a Highlander who works for the Aird family alongside the ramblings of Robert Kirke.

I am a big fan of historical fiction particularly with a mystical element so I did enjoy this book but it didn’t quite tick all the boxes I was hoping it would. Having said the Sally Magnusson’s beautiful style of writing will always leave me wanting to read more.

A marmite read for me I'm afraid.

The historical side of the book is really interesting. We find out aabout the building of the aqueduct system in Glasgow which stretches from Loch Katrine to the Milngavie Reservoir. This is still in operation today as it serves the city with their water. I'm all for finding out about things like this, historical moments that arent' well covered, so this was really gripping. Imagine at a time when cholera and diseases were rife, what this would have meant to the people of the city!

Of course there were problems and challenges with this and the men who built it were put upon by their demanding rich bosses (no change there then)

I just wish this had been the main focus of the book. It's the backdrop really and this for me was much more interesting than the plot itself. The main plot focuses on a minster and his wife with problems in their marriage and when trying to have a baby. there's tales of folklore and magical realism which are linked to the actual area of Doon Hill which was interesting. However, the story then meandered off into new and numerous strands and I felt the heart of it was lost in the midst of it all.

The writing and scene setting is brilliant though so despite my not being a fan of the subplots, I loved the overall idea and will definately be buying the author's next book.

This one was a disappointment for me I’m afraid. The plot sounded great, and I normally love magical realism, but in this occasion it just didn’t work. The writing was stilted, the plot just completely bizarre, and I couldn’t connect with Isabel at all. Not one I would recommend, and a disappointing experience for my first book by the author.

Thank you to John Murray/Two Roads and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

I shall start my review by saying that Sally Magnusson is evidently a brilliant writer, I would not have been able to finish the book if this were not the case.

I really struggled to read this book, Isabel's story was sad but not her actions and the plot (and sub plots) surrounding her were not that believable. It felt as though the book needed to either go fully into the more magical realism elements or pull back entirely, it seemed to be balancing between the two and unfortunately it did not pay off. A real shame as I was so hoping to enjoy The Ninth Child.

As I said, I very much enjoyed Magnusson's writing and I do hope she releases another book in the near future.

3/5

I found this book to be a mixture of history with an almost mythical feel.
This story is about the building of the Loch Katrine water works built to bring fresh water to the people in Glasgow and is intermingled with the legend of Reverend Robert Kirke a man who wrote about fairy folk in a mystical place.
I was drawn to the characters especially Isabel who is at a very sad time when the book begins.book
A good interesting book. Thank you netgalley.