Not the sort of book I would usually read but never the less an enchanting book and true story that deserves to be read. Tenderly written to capture the central character Anna's love of ducks in her last year of looking after the area where the ducks live.Thanks for the chance to ARC this book.

Several years ago, Rebanks visited a Norwegian island with its one remaining "duck woman", a woman who tended the eider who nested there, kept them safe from predators as far as she could and collected the feathers for eiderdowns, and felt a real connection with the woman. He couldn't get her out of his head and, it turned out, she remembered him, the only Englishman who had visited her.

And so it turned out that he was able to arrange to stay with her for her one last season before she retired - along with her best friend Ingrid, who is a little younger and more well - and help with the various processes involved. Of course, to shape the story a little more, we get Rebanks' gradual realisation that he needs to connect back better with his family, calm down a bit in his work and take the days as they come; he also learns forgiveness and patience as he pieces together Anna's story, discovering why she is now on this particular island and not the family's original one, and fortitude, as she carved out this place for herself.

Of course there is some "nature red in tooth and claw" but not too bad or vividly described, and the three people's relationship with the ducks is protective and mutual but not sentimentalised. There are lovely moments where the work Rebanks has done on the family farm carry over into this work - using a particular kind of hay fork, building dry stone walls - and he has the experience of being competent rather than very much an apprentice. The days pass slowly with quiet work and little distraction, and you sense it's very much a new beginning for Rebanks as he moves back into the mainland world at the end.

Blog post review publishing on 20 October: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2024/10/20/book-review-james-rebanks-the-place-of-tides/

A fascinating insight into the life of a rather special woman called Anna. and how the author became involved in her unique way of life.
Having spent some time with the 'duck lady', examining what leads her to suffer such hardships, but yet her great determination to complete the collection of the feathers, the author himself is led to examine his own life and expectations. This is an inspiring read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

It is difficult to write a review of this book as nothing really happens except a farmer spending time with an environmentally aware lady who looks after ducks and collects their eiderdown at the end of the season. That said it is a wonderfully comforting engaging book to fill your winter nights with. A tale of dedication and endurance, tradition and love. A vanishing occupation that will soon be no longer with us.

A beautifully detailed account of a summer spent with the eider ducks on the islands of Norway, James Rebanks bring the sensitivity of his earlier work to a culture he knew little about. He is drawn to Anna, seasoned duck-woman, to learn her ways and to reconnect with what he loves about the land but has lost. It's a very moving account of a way of life that is fast disappearing, and those strong enough to hold on to it.

An atmospheric story of a jaded journalist learning about life and hardship from an older woman. Set on a remote Norwegian island, where the journalist is sent to quiz the islanders on their lives and how they survive. He learns about the eider ducks (from which we get eiderdown) and how the islanders tend the birds’ nests in order to encourage them to return for another year. A moving story.

An enchanting true story of people who maintain the tradition of tending eider ducks on their nests, and then process the down that the hens use to keep the chicks warm, creating eiderdowns.
Sensitively told with a touch of humour

What a delightful read. This story tells us the work that goes on to preserve and help the eider duck to safely give birth and rear their chicks. For those of us with no idea that this goes on, it was a joy to follow the lives of the ‘duck women’. What a lonely time it must be for them, on uninhabited islands for weeks - but the dedication is obvious. Not only do they help keep the birds and their eggs safe but they collect the down left by the ducks to transform into eiderdown quilts.
Also within this story is the personal fight of our protagonist that maybe this, for her, was also her final year, leading to retiring. You get the feeling that this is not something she finds easy. Living this life must get firmly embedded in the Duck Women - for who can care for the ducks like they do?
This really is a different book and very well worth reading.
Let’s view our eiderdown quilts in a different light from now on.

An enchanting true story of people who maintain the tradition of tending eider ducks on their nests, and then process the down that the hens use to keep the chicks warm, creating eiderdowns.
Sensitively told with a touch of humour.
James Rebanks tells why he started this project, and how it helped him.
He brings his characters to life in his words, and explains, usually through the words explaining the same to him, all of the whys and wherfores of this pastime.
After spending some days with this group of people, it will be hard to live without them, perhaps I'll just have to read it again.
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Back in 2020 I was delighted to read English Pastoral by James Rebanks which looked at the farming life of three generations of his family in Cumbria. I was just about to move up to Cumbria myself and it really was a wonderful read. Therefore I was delighted to read this new book.
Norway is a country that we never really hear a lot about, even less do we consider how the down from Eider Ducks is collected and treated.
Whereas English Pastoral looked at the author's own family history, this book looked at the history of, mainly, one person who spent two months each Spring on the islands off Norway building homes for the Eiders to build their nest in right through to collecting the down at the end once the ducks had left the island with their youngsters. This is a very old tradition which the author describes and it is great to see these traditions still on going and he spends the two months on the island helping out.
The story of these 'duck women' is told in such a wonderful way. Not only do we find out a lot about nature, the ducks and these amazing women, but the author is helped to re-discover himself and his emotions. The book also shows you how amazing the natural world is, and although we can see the damage done by the human race, it also shows how important people are in society, how people trat one another, and how our own beliefs can sometimes sway the way we look at life.
My only negative criticism of the book is the front cover, and the lack of any photographs in the book which would have provided an extra dimension to the story. However, this is an early copy so that may change when the book is published.
Many thanks to Penguin Press UK, NetGalley and the author for providing me with an advanced electronic copy of the book in return for a honest and unbiased review.
The book will be published on 17th October in e-book, hardback and audiobook formats and would be a great gift for anyone that loves the natural world.

This book!
A gentle hug of a book. If you enjoyed The Salt Path I think you would like this.

James Rebanks shadows Annie for a season on the duck islands. Full of drama and waiting the story of a disappearing tradition and a symbiotic relationship with the eider ducks.

A lovely restorative read, thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I found this book interesting. to read about how this woman cared for the ducks. The traditions and experiences she has had over her life and the knowledge she passes on. This book told a story that I could picture.

I rarely read nonfiction but I was drawn to this book as I am interested in stories of people reconnecting with nature and reevaluating their outlook on life as a result. The author is a shepherd and farmer in Cumbria, and as such could be considered to be closer to nature in his day to day work life than most. But it is known that the suicide rate is much higher amongst the farming community than in the general population, and it is hard, often thankless work. Finding himself perpetually angry, busy, stressed and depressed, he recognises the need to take some time out to think about this.

Rebanks is also a historian, and in this book he tells how he achieved this by spending a couple of months on a remote island off the Norwegian mainland with a "duck woman" - one of a dwindling number of mainly women who spend every spring on a clutch of tiny islands near the Arctic circle, encouraging eider ducks to nest and protecting them as they sit on their eggs in order to collect the eider they use to line their nests once the chicks have hatched and returned to the sea. This is a heritage occupation in a region of the world which is a national park as well as a UNESCO world heritage site, and I found the description of the landscape and wildlife as winter gives way to spring far more interesting than the relatively not-rocket-science life lessons Rebanks draws from the experience.

Rebanks learns the power of living in the moment, and of forgiveness and of being nonjudgmental, of allowing difficult feelings to arise rather than suppressing them, of trusting women to be as capable as men. All of which he could have learnt in any half-decent introductory meditation course. Far more powerful is the portrayal of his duck woman Anna, an ageing woman who has made difficult choices based on her priorities and has learnt what truly matters along the way without ever making a song and dance about it. She is a woman of few words, dignified and self-sufficient. James is initially drawn to her because he has her pegged as a loner who escapes from it all by retreating to her island, but he couldn't be further from the truth that in choosing her path she has attracted love and admiration and a wide circle of family and friends who love and support her, and whom she values above any ancient slights and quarrels. As he puts it, she is an ordinary woman who has lived an extraordinary life.

There is also an environmental message, but it is worn lightly and I think is more effective for it. Rebanks observes in passing the plastic pollution that has reached this remote part of the world, carried by the Gulf Stream. And in telling the history of the wildlife he reminds us that man has been irresponsibly exploiting the natural world for decades and centuries - the duck numbers have dwindled significantly over the last 100 years or so thanks to overfishing and industrial fishing methods which have depleted the ducks' natural food stocks. And not only the ducks' but many other sea birds too.

Rebanks' writing style is not especially inspired - he is far from being a new Robert Macfarlane although he too is an Oxford graduate - hence the three star rating. But as an account of a man in his 50s re-evaluating his priorities, and a description of a vanishing way of life, this is well worth a read.

I have read this author’s books about farming in the Lake District and thoroughly enjoyed them. This was different in several ways. Rather like its subject matter, the book is very slow-moving, depicting the non-romantic relationships between three people over the course of a summer. It is a pleasant enough read if you are not expecting any dramas, and it is well-written. Perhaps a thriller-reader like me is not the audience he was intending to reach.

The story of James Rebanks journey to a Norwegian island and Anna who looks after the eider ducks and collects their feathers.
Beautiful descriptions of the landscape and a way of life I knew nothing about.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for my e-copy in exchange for a honest review.

What a delight to read, this is the story of a spring spent on a small island of the Vega Archipelago off the Norwegian coast. Several years earlier the author had met Anna, the duck woman, on her island whilst working, he never forgot her and eventually he wrote to her asking if he could spend some time with her.
Her reply was simple, come now and bring good boots. So the adventure began.
The book tells of Anna’s memories of her grandparent and great parents living on their island, How the life was lost and then how Anna fought to get it back. Spending the spring salvaging the duck houses, building nests and hoping the Eider ducks would trust her enough to use the nests. The reason why she is now on a different island and helping to rebuild the duck houses, drying the seaweed and building the nests, then waiting to see if the ducks would come. Then when they do, keeping them safe from predators. Once the ducklings are hatched and away then gathering the eiderdown to clean and take back to Vega.
A real delight.

An extremely well written written book that took a little time to get into but it is well worth the effort . It follows James’s journey from his normal life as a Cumbrian farmer having taken a year out to visit a remote Norwegian island to help elderly Anna monitor the duck population an help them nest to save their dwindling numbers. The back breaking work undertaken for this elderly woman known as the ‘Duck Woman ‘ and her friend for minimum earnings from their harvest of elder feathers to make quilt is very thought provoking. A thoroughly enjoyable read and a very different genre for me as we follow James doing back breaking work and finding his true self on this long journey for very little to no reward in the most extreme weathers and being one with nature. 4/5

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy.
I was incredibly charmed by this book, evoking a level of connection and love for the earth that I can only envy and respect. Full of gentle descriptions and honest truths, I truly hope that this records a way of life that won't be lost forever thanks to the mistakes of humanity

What a privilege to be transported to another country and experience a way of life so completely different from your own. These words can apply just as easily to the reader as to the author or this fascinating book.
We follow the author so closely on his journey that it almost feels like we are there on the island with him, so detailed and descriptive is the writing.
He gained insight from his experience and I believe that I did too.

I found this book so interesting to read about how this wonderful woman cared for the ducks. The traditions and experiences she has had over her life