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Sunset Song (Canons) Paperback – March 30, 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length286 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCanongate Books
- Publication dateMarch 30, 2006
- Dimensions5.08 x 0.71 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-101841957569
- ISBN-13978-1841957562
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Editorial Reviews
Review
It is gritty and passionate and one of Scotland's great 20th-century novels--Jim Naughtie "Daily Express"
This book may be read with delight the world over.-- "New York Times"
Review
Beautifully written novel about a rural Scottish community facing the acute changes wrought by the First World War. While describing a way of life in decline, it also presents a vision of hope for the future via its strong female lead character. ― Independant on Sunday
It is gritty and passionate and one of Scotland's great 20th-century novels -- Jim Naughtie ― Daily Express
From the Back Cover
"This book may be read with delight the world over." New York Times
"[Sunset Song's] great gripping hybrid of melodrama and realism . . . left me scorched." Ali Smith
One of the most acclaimed Scottish novels of the twentieth century, Sunset Song is the first and most celebrated book in Lewis Grassic Gibbons' great trilogy, A Scots Quair.
The turmoil that devastated the rural community in Scotland in the years up to and beyond the First World War has a powerful impact on the life of the heroine, Chris Guthrie. Grassic Gibbon endows her struggle and enduring strength with a lyrical intensity that echoes through the years, distilling the essence of the country and its people.
About the Author
James Leslie Mitchell, 'Lewis Grassic Gibbon' (1901-35), was born and brought up in the rich farming land of Scotland's North-East coast. After a brief journalistic career, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1919, serving in Persia, India and Egypt before he spent six years as a clerk in the RAF. He married Rebecca Middleton in 1925, and became a full-time writer in 1929. He was a prolific writer of novels, short stories and essays and had seventeen full length books published before his untimely death at the age of thirty-four. He adopted his maternal grandmother's name for his Scottish work including A Scots Quair: Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite. An unfinished novel, The Speak of the Mearns, was published posthumously in 1982.
Product details
- Publisher : Canongate Books; Main edition (March 30, 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 286 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1841957569
- ISBN-13 : 978-1841957562
- Item Weight : 7.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 0.71 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,259,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,980 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Books)
- #23,792 in Family Saga Fiction
- #64,010 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015This is a wonderful book. A little hard to read as it is written with a lot of Scots dialect, but it does have a guide in the back. The story is good.
I am sure that in the day it was written, it was somewhat shocking. This was recommended to me by a librarian and I am so glad that I took the time to read it.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2016I've read a lot of books set during this time period that illustrate the impact of World War One and how it completely changed the lives of the people who lived then, but none as lovely and haunting as this one. Scotland as it had been for a thousand years turned inside out as was the rest of the world.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2017Beautifully written. Encapsulates a period of a Scottish social history in farming community during and after World War I
- Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2012Not a novel for everyone but since it was first published in the early thirties it has become a classic of sorts. It is lyrical in language but not easy for everyone to follow since it is written in the Scottish country dialect of the early 20th century. For it's time it is very frank with regard to sexual matters.I believe it is a minor classic.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2020Beautiful, but heart wrenching.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2018I have not finished reading it yet
- Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2023This story of a girl growing up in Scotland is amazing. Set in early 20th century the author conveys the story in a language almost lyrical.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves history and great writing.
Top reviews from other countries
- FortbildungsFreitagReviewed in Germany on May 1, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Still worth reading <3
There is not a better book than this one :)
- MG RussellReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars A Work of Art
This Canongate edition is a handsomely bound hardback with an ‘awful bonny cover,’ as I’m sure the narrator of Sunset Song would have said. The narrator is not a character in the novel, but speaks the same language and comes from the same fictional place, Kinraddie in the north-east of Scotland. There are therefore many Scots or Doric words, like quean, kye and childe in the text, but there is a helpful glossary at the back. English words are not corrupted. There is no ‘hoose’ instead of ‘house.’
As another reviewer has observed, it is not a particularly easy read, because the author writes in long convoluted sentences. But the more you get into the book the easier it becomes. Sunset Song is a remarkable and a poetic portrait of rural Scotland at a time when much was changing due to the capitalisation of agriculture the coming of the Great War. But the novel is also a personal story, that of Chris Guthrie, and it seems remarkable to me than a man in the first part of the twentieth centuary could write so intimately about a the life of a young woman. It fair takes your breath away.
This is no po-faced novel. It abounds with humour. "She looked a daft-like keek for she was lifting up her hands and her eyes like a heifer choked on a turnip...." That is a decription of the figure of Faith, the sister of Hope and Charity, in the church’s stained glass window. “For if there’s a body on earth that would skin a tink for his sark and preach for a pension in purgatory, it’s an Auld Kirk minister.” Grassic Gibbon is fairly scathing about the clergy, but as the relatives of the fallen stand at the newly inscribed war memorial, it is the minister who provides an eloquent summation of what has been lost measured not only in lives, but in the passing of a way of life.
There are two more books in the ‘Scots Quair’ series, so I will shortly be placing my order.
Quean - girl
Kye - cows
Childe – an adult male
Keek - to look, shyly
Heifer – a young cow
Sark - shirt
- Jonathan TalbotReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and funny
I picked up on this after hearing Kirsty Wark’s radio programmes on Scottish literature. It then sat in the pile of to be reads by the side of the bed. My book group is reading Howard’s End but despite its glittering reputation l found it dull and in some ways, offensive. So l picked up Sunset Song and what a contrast. Here is a book with real energy and characters l actually care about. It is difficult at first for English readers to attune to Scots dialect but there is a rhythm and earthiness which make this a compelling read. The narrative cracks along and we see the way the various characters are at once different and united. What l especially love is the way the book is infused with the sardonic humour which propels life everywhere, despite the hardships and mishaps. To my way of thinking this is not a great Scottish novel, it is a great novel period and l would take it over EM Forster and his boring, uptight upper middle class Englishness any day of the week.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2017
4.0 out of 5 stars The book has strengths and weaknesses, of course. ...
The book has strengths and weaknesses, of course. The description of the area, the weather, the sense of place all very successful. Evocative. Character and plot less convincing. The central character, Chris, is meant to be feisty but in fact I frequently found her too egotistical to be credible and others characters were predictable, even stereotypes. The ending is deplorable. But for all that it's a page turner and the invented dialect in which it is written is superbly maintained and wholly engaging..
- A. C.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Sunset Song review (very short)
I read this book recently for the first time. I’m quite well read and have no hesitation in saying this is among tha very finest books I’ve read. The story is concentrated with significant events often taking up only a few paragraphs. There’s the minimum of descriptive writing, just enough to convey, for example the importance and permanence of the land or soil. The characters are sparely described. We learn much of them but that’s largely by their actions and words. The language used involves many Scots words which I did not know and I’m Scottish. I recommend The Essential Scots Dictionary as an essential companion. You won’t get the most from this book without help. I was looking up words on virtually every page. The story is excellent. It’s all very believable and you might think it all really happened and these people existed. There are light-hearted moments but the people’s lives are a struggle and that’s a persistent theme. I think there is also a strong theme of loss in the broadest sense. It’s an intense, at times overwhelmingly sad story with a satisfying ending. I’m making a point of giving nothing of the storyline. I can’t imagine anyone not liking this great yet comparatively short book.