The Sealwoman’s Gift

Magnusson is the author of ten non-fiction books and here makes an impressive fiction debut. Inspired by historical records of a 1627 raid on Iceland by Barbary slave-traders, she re-imagines in compelling detail the fate of one family brought to captivity in Algiers. The father, a Lutheran pastor, is sent back to seek ransom. The children are absorbed into Muslim life. The focus is on the mother, Asta, sold to an intelligent and uncommonly gallant slave-owner who enjoys her Icelandic sagas. The pleasures of storytelling weave through the novel, as does Asta’s reckoning with loss, fidelity, faith and the terrible tradeoffs of survival. A rich, captivating work. Jeffrey Burke