“Music in the Dark” by Sally Magnusson, begins with Jamesina Bain answering the door. She expects to be faced with children dressed for Halloween, and instead she is greeted by a ghost of a different sort. Widowed, disfigured and forced to take in other people’s washing, she has decided to take a lodger. The man who arrives at her Scottish tenement fresh from America, somehow manages to bring with him her past and her future.

Flitting backwards and forward in time, Magnusson tell a story that is has a great deal of profound sadness, grief and violence, but also joy over living, education, words, nature and love. Through her characters, Magnusson explores the impact of the land clearances in the Highlands of Scotland, immigration and trauma. Whilst this could be a hard book to read, and certainly there were occasions I was in tears, this is also a very funny human read, with a great understanding of what people can show on the outside versus what they are truly thinking. There is as much unkindness in this book as there is warmth and understanding. I would highly recommend it.

The book is written in a dual point of view which I enjoyed as you got to experience both characters thoughts. Although I did find aspects confusing as at some points it wasn’t clear which point of view the chapter was.

This was a quietly heartbreaking book, fictionalising the too real Highland Clearnces in the 1800s. As with the author's previous books, it's a slow burn and took me a while to get into, and, I have to admit the middle did drag slightly for me, but overall it was a beautifully written tale.
Thank you to netgalley and John Murray Press for an advance copy of this book.

Music in the Dark is a well written book about a very dark period in Scottish history. Sally Magnusson has written a great fictional story based around factual events. It's written from Jamesina and her lodgers points of view over two different timelines and portrays the tragedy and injustice of the Highland Clearances.
I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone that enjoys historical fiction. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the chance to review this book.

This is a very sensitive, poignant and well-researched tale about people going through Highlands clearances in the XIXth century Scotland. It is slow-paced, telling the story from two time perspectives (then and now, but happening in one lifetime), through different people’s eyes – mainly two of them, who reconnected later in life.
It is a very sensitive, yet important topic, I don’t see being talked about enough, especially in such a delicate, yet informative manner, not just statistics. There were places in the book that were upsetting to read, knowing that even though some characters are fictional or fictional, these things happened.
From important historical facts, that carefully built the story, to personal family history notes, the author weaves this important tale of the people, who thought that they might be forgotten. And yet they shouldn’t. The music and poetry come into this book as a ray of light and hope, as an opportunity to pass on their story to others and future generations – of their own lives, of women who resisted the unfair and even gruesome treatment by the English authorities at the time. Those were dark times indeed and hence this Music in the Dark.

This book involves the Highland Clearances, particularly at Strathcarron in 1854, which Jamesina Ross was involved in along with many other women of the community who were brutally beaten by the police while being thrown out of their homes, which were then burnt and demolished. This incident changes Jamesina's whole life, crushing her dreams of an education. Moving to Glasgow when she's well enough she suffers the loss of her children from pollution and bad living conditions, but life takes a turn for the better eventually.

DNFd at 24%. I'm sorry to say this wasn't for me. I can see that it's a good book but I didn't gel with the writing style. I think it's more suited to people who enjoy literary fiction. I'm disappointed because I was really excited for this one.

I'd like to thank the publishers, John Murray Press, and Netgalley for kindly providing me with an advance release copy. All opinions are my own.

Thematically interesting and historically well-researched, but very disappointing in terms of writing, structure and storytelling.

It appears that the well-worn adage 'practice makes perfect' doesn't work for all authors. While I greatly admire Sally Magnusson for her work in presenting and journalism her career as a writer of fiction, sadly, has been less successful — at least in the opinion of this reviewer. Her debut novel, The Sealwoman's Gift (2018) is excellent, The Ninth Child (2020) mediocre and her latest, The Dark Music (2023) is perhaps best described as 'pedestrian'. Everything writers are advised not to do Magnusson employs with abundance in this novel. Perhaps it's that I'm ever hopeful to see improvement in people's endeavours that Magnusson's third work of fiction feels such a let-down to me. Possibly the problem is simply that this novel is too personal for the author, inspired as it is by the experiences of her great-grandmother who, along with her family, was evicted during the notorious Highland Clearances of 1854 in which greedy landowners deprived people of their homes and livelihoods to make room for sheep which were regarded as more profitable.

Many thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for the ARC.

A dark period of Scottish history, broached with music and poetry by a master storyteller; For readers who enjoy historical details and quiet digressions.

This is a profound book. It did not enthral me, but was a patient description of a life immersed in tragedy after a shocking injustice. It recounts a passage in the Highland clearances, a passage of history that is glossed over leaving a sour bitterness in those whose land was lost. The main character was a victim of violence, sustaining a head injury that affected her profoundly both physically and mentally. But the book does not end there, it is also a slow burning love story where a man who has held a candle for her for many years demonstrates a gentle, healing love for her. This enables her to appreciate life in a much better way. A well crafted novel

This is the third novel by Scottish author Sally Magnusson and although I had a few problems with her first two – The Sealwoman’s Gift, the story of an Icelandic woman sold into slavery in Algeria, and The Ninth Child, about the construction of the Loch Katrine Waterworks – I still wanted to read this one because it sounded so interesting.

It begins in 1884 in a tenement in Rutherglen, a town near Glasgow, where the widowed Jamesina Bain is taking in a new lodger. The lodger is a man, newly arrived from America, where he has lived for many years. At first he has no idea who the Widow Bain is, but as he and Jamesina spend more time together, they discover that they have a shared past – they both lived through the forced eviction of Greenyards in Strathcarron.

The eviction was part of the Highland Clearances, the period when landowners in Scotland removed tenants from their estates so the land could be used for more profitable purposes – which, in the case of Greenyards, meant sheep farming. The clearances of Greenyards in 1854 and nearby Glencalvie a few years earlier, were particularly shocking, for reasons I won’t go into here as the novel will probably have more impact if you don’t already know what happened.

Sally Magnusson doesn’t delve too deeply into the politics surrounding the clearances or the reasons behind them – although Jamesina and her friends believe it was due to the Celtic people being considered inferior – and she acknowledges in her author’s note that it’s a very complex subject. Instead, she concentrates on exploring the long-term effects of the clearances, physically, emotionally and mentally, on the evicted people.

The novel is written from the perspectives of both Jamesina and her lodger, moving between the two as well as jumping backwards and forwards in time between 1884 and 1854. This structure is ultimately quite rewarding as things do eventually fall into place and we come to understand what happened during the Greenyards eviction and the sequence of events that sent Jamesina to Rutherglen and her lodger to America. However, it also means that the first half of the novel is slightly confusing and lacks focus, something that isn’t helped by the style in which Jamesina’s sections are written – often descending into a jumble of thoughts, word association and stream of consciousness. There was a reason for that style, which I understood later on, but it didn’t make this an easy book for me to get into.

I found this book very evocative of time and place, whether I was reading about Jamesina’s childhood in Greenyards or her life in the Rutherglen tenement, taking in laundry to earn a living and sleeping in the ‘kitchen bed’ to keep the bedroom available for lodgers. Magnusson also incorporates lots of other interesting issues, such as the healing power of music, the devastating impact of dementia and the joys of education. I found it very sad that the adult Jamesina, who had been such a bright child and was being taught Latin by the local minister, questions the point in being educated if you’re only going to be leading a life of drudgery.

I have deliberately not provided the name of Jamesina’s lodger, as we don’t immediately know who he is or how he fits into her life and I thought I would leave you to make that discovery for yourself. This is a fascinating novel in many ways and I did enjoy it once I got past the halfway point, which is why I don’t like abandoning books too early!

A beautiful book which is based on the true story of the Highland clearances. It tells the tale of the harrowing life of Jamesina as we slowly discover more about her story and how is life is intertwined with the life of a stranger who turns up unexpectedly on her doorstep looking for lodgings.

This is an excellent, completely engrossing, and evocative piece of work by Sally Magnusson. Based on truth, the author is descended from people directly involved.

Very well written and researched, showing the strength of character of the women during the violent Highland Clearances. The words smoothly convey the atmosphere, home life, and heartfelt emotions of the women. The life-changing physical and mental effects of the Police violence on these women are shocking to behold, and hell to live with.

The poetry and song lifted my Scottish heart, and I totally engaged with the main character, Jamesina. I was right there throughout her life. There is a lot covered inside these pages, but I was very happy to see the menopause and female prolapse included as these are not usually mentioned. Recommended.

I chose this ARC from a selection. I voluntarily and honestly read and reviewed this work. All opinions are my own. My thanks to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author.

It’s a story based on real life events in 19th century Scotland. The main narrative starts with a poor widow taking in a lodger who is a newcomer in her town. Bit by bit we get to know more about their past through their memories and shared conversations.
The book is written in a specific kind of way, with an elegiac feel to it. I can see some people really enjoying it but somehow I just found it hard to engage with it for too long, perhaps I wasn’t interested enough in the two main characters as we get to know them very slowly. I’ve read about 45% of the book and decided to drop it, it just wasn’t for me.

This is a very clever book about a very clever woman. The main character, Jamesina, was involved in the highland clearances in Sutherland and the novel looks back on her life before and after the tragic event. Sally Magnusson has written an evocative and deftly executed book based on a real-life episode in Scotland history. She serves up a smorgasbord of everything and more - Glasgow tenement life, early-onset dementia, menopause, love, poetry and song, highland history, Gaelic life, buttons and shoes. I have enjoyed every book written by Sally Magnusson but I think that this one is her best yet.

This is an excellent book: a great read. A fictionalised account of very real events involved in the Highland clearances of the mid 19th Century. These were based on the belief of the racial inferiority of the Celtic peoples, driven by commercial motives, and carried out with considerable violence and cruelty.
Magnusson is directly descended from people who were affected. She has researched carefully and describes the effects of the actions taken on individuals and families, which were often torn apart. Many people were displaced to the colonies and the Americas where some made good, but many others moved to work in the cities where poverty and overcrowding led to disease and early death.
The central role of women in resisting the clearances is also highlighted, and reference made to the early development of psychiatry in assisting some of those traumatised.