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Upon the Corner of the Moon: A Tale of the Macbeths
At the dawn of the second millennium, two royal Scottish children are swept away from their families— Macbeth to the perilous royal court of his grandfather, and Gruach to the remnants of the goddess-worshiping Picts. Macbeth learns that blood bonds are easily severed while Gruach finds her path only to lose it when she' s summoned back to the patriarchal world. Each struggle with gaining and losing power, guided and misguided by prophecy and politics as their paths converge in a fiery bid for royal succession.Upon the Corner of the Moon separates literary legend from reality, immersing readers in a story about the real rulers who changed the face of Scotland. Some legends are true, and the truth sometimes becomes a legend— or a lie. This novel masterfully dovetails the Macbeth legend and the truth without sacrificing either.
377 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 11, 2025
10 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Nieman
20 books96 followersUpon the Corner of the Moon: A Tale of the Macbeths, is the first of two novels about the rise of Scotland in the 11th century and the historical Macbeths who shaped it. Deeply researched, it has a speculative element in the creation of an ancient goddess religion. “Steeped in the myth, mystery, politics, and culture of Celtic Scotland, Upon the Corner of the Moon presents the world of the young Lady Macbeth and Macbeth with authenticity, a deft hand, and a poet’s voice,” says Susan Fraser King, author of Lady Macbeth: A Novel.
Dead Hand, the sequel to To the Bones, a genre-bending folk horror/mystery set in coal country that was shortlisted for both the Manly Wade Wellman Award and the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Available in print and e-book on Amazon.
"...a hard-fought battle, from West Virginia to Ireland, for a future free from legacies of pain and plunder. Nieman crafts a richly atmospheric folk horror tale with a thumping heart of environmental justice; like Manly Wade Wellman for a new generation.”—Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark
In the Lonely Backwater received the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best book of fiction by a North Carolina writer. Past recipients include Jason Mott, Lee Smith, Allen Gurganus, Charles Frazier et al. The book also was named winner in the Mystery/Suspense category of the American Writing Awards and was a finalist at Foreword Reviews.
The novel is "a page-turning psychological thriller" and "an intricate and intriguing work of art." With a style both Southern Gothic and realist, and its deep immersion in nature, the novel appeals to lovers of suspense and YA reader alike. "Nieman achieves a suspenseful narrative full of compassion, haunting, and desire, and instruction about the power of storytelling" wrote another reviewer.
My most recent poetry book, "Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse," is set in a mid-century carnival sideshow and features poems that have appeared in The Missouri Review, Chautauqua, and other journals. More than 15 years of writing -- and a week of study at Coney Island Museum -- went into telling the story of Dinah and The Professor.
My first novel, Neena Gathering, a post-apocalyptic tale set in West Virginia, was reissued as a classic in the genre, and is also available on Audible.
I've been a doughnut-maker, farmer, reporter, sailor, professor, and always, a walker and observer. All my experiences find their way into my work, from memories of high school drama to a visit to the working face of a coal mine to the insights gleaned from working the police beat at a small-town newspaper.
I have held grants from the NEA, North Carolina and West Virginia arts councils. I earned degrees from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.
Follow me on Facebook @valerienieman1, and on Instagram and Twitter @valnieman. My Youtube channel has reading videos and more.
Dead Hand, the sequel to To the Bones, a genre-bending folk horror/mystery set in coal country that was shortlisted for both the Manly Wade Wellman Award and the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Available in print and e-book on Amazon.
"...a hard-fought battle, from West Virginia to Ireland, for a future free from legacies of pain and plunder. Nieman crafts a richly atmospheric folk horror tale with a thumping heart of environmental justice; like Manly Wade Wellman for a new generation.”—Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark
In the Lonely Backwater received the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best book of fiction by a North Carolina writer. Past recipients include Jason Mott, Lee Smith, Allen Gurganus, Charles Frazier et al. The book also was named winner in the Mystery/Suspense category of the American Writing Awards and was a finalist at Foreword Reviews.
The novel is "a page-turning psychological thriller" and "an intricate and intriguing work of art." With a style both Southern Gothic and realist, and its deep immersion in nature, the novel appeals to lovers of suspense and YA reader alike. "Nieman achieves a suspenseful narrative full of compassion, haunting, and desire, and instruction about the power of storytelling" wrote another reviewer.
My most recent poetry book, "Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse," is set in a mid-century carnival sideshow and features poems that have appeared in The Missouri Review, Chautauqua, and other journals. More than 15 years of writing -- and a week of study at Coney Island Museum -- went into telling the story of Dinah and The Professor.
My first novel, Neena Gathering, a post-apocalyptic tale set in West Virginia, was reissued as a classic in the genre, and is also available on Audible.
I've been a doughnut-maker, farmer, reporter, sailor, professor, and always, a walker and observer. All my experiences find their way into my work, from memories of high school drama to a visit to the working face of a coal mine to the insights gleaned from working the police beat at a small-town newspaper.
I have held grants from the NEA, North Carolina and West Virginia arts councils. I earned degrees from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.
Follow me on Facebook @valerienieman1, and on Instagram and Twitter @valnieman. My Youtube channel has reading videos and more.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 3, 2025
‘Battles fought by women, their words no less edged than men’s blades. Battles for position, and, yes, survival, in Malcolm’s court’.
This a very dense, well researched book which explores the younger years of Macbeth and Gruach’s lives before they married, before they ruled. Told in alternating POVs, there was just so much in this story, I needed to read it in chunks. Not only is it a story of their lives before but as it skips through the years, there’s plenty of context of the era: the old Celtic and Pictish, the influence of the Vikings and Romans before as well as the rise in Christianity; the rise and fall of power.
I can believe the author when she said she took 30 years to research and write this story. Due to its immersive nature, it’ll best suite history aficionados- particularly those with a penchant for the Middle Ages and Scottish history.
‘Kings are like all men, amenable to the reins if the hand is sure. Those who desire power will give it to gain it’.
This a very dense, well researched book which explores the younger years of Macbeth and Gruach’s lives before they married, before they ruled. Told in alternating POVs, there was just so much in this story, I needed to read it in chunks. Not only is it a story of their lives before but as it skips through the years, there’s plenty of context of the era: the old Celtic and Pictish, the influence of the Vikings and Romans before as well as the rise in Christianity; the rise and fall of power.
I can believe the author when she said she took 30 years to research and write this story. Due to its immersive nature, it’ll best suite history aficionados- particularly those with a penchant for the Middle Ages and Scottish history.
‘Kings are like all men, amenable to the reins if the hand is sure. Those who desire power will give it to gain it’.
December 2, 2024
A remarkable book, beginning in the year 1005, detailing the youth and young manhood of Macbeth, and Gruach, who was to become Lady Macbeth. Both were sent away from their families when very young and raised by foster parents. There is much court intrigue, with various factions jockeying for power - generally above the heads of our young protagonists. But Macbeth slowly gains the respect of those around him, while Gruach is married off to a cruel man who abuses her. This is not an easy read -- Nieman has done many years of research, including several visits to Scotland to gain a sense of the land and its people. The result is a toothsome book, the first of two, that gives one great insight into the machinations surrounding Macbeth's ascent. It is beautifully written, with Nieman's descriptions of rites and samples of the poetry of the time. It's told in alternating viewpoints, with occasional dips into first-person sections from the point of view of Lapwing, a mad poet who has an agenda of his own. There are also whiffs of the supernatural. Not to be missed by fans of serious historical fiction. Once you start reading it, you'll find it difficult to put down.
March 13, 2025
Link to my review from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Sunday, March 9th): https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books...
Full text below:
About halfway through “Upon the Corner of the Moon” the character of Macbeth — who should be considered a slightly different figure (and perhaps closer to the historical Macbeth) than the character in his eponymously-named, Shakespeare-authored play — encounters a monk in his travels, and in their conversation a question is asked: “Tell me, can one man serve as another’s conscience? Can someone be the conscience for a king?”
This, in many ways, feels more like the question that Shakespeare’s play asks its audiences, whereas Nieman’s novel seems more interested in what the cultural and social apparatus and pressures of the 11th century might have had to do with how that conscience developed and, further, how such a question could come to be asked at all.
Nieman’s novel takes on the difficult task of giving us, as readers, access to a historical context for the Macbeth we know from the oft-performed tragedy, while also engaging us in a clear consideration of the political vicissitudes of a Scotland facing an inevitable religious confrontation between the old ways the new.
The story wanders back and forth between the perspectives of Macbeth and Gruach, who will eventually become Lady Macbeth. It also happens in an entirely linear fashion, with the perspectives and speech patterns of both characters growing and changing as they do. This brings, for a reader, a fascinating blend of emotionally-charged and dramatic moments in a narrative heading toward a final scene that, ostensibly, every reader will anticipate (if they, indeed, remember their high school English classes).
This intense and honestly affecting scene-building Nieman does is the real power underscoring the book. We see a young Macbeth become half-brother to an older and somewhat smug Duncan. And, in the entirety of their relationship throughout the book, which involves each one helping, saving, and learning to love the other, we can’t help but be reminded of the violence and betrayal that will eventually conclude their story.
Gruach, too, has so much to do in her own attempts to survive a world in which she’s been sold off to the most expedient bidder. Nieman doesn’t shy away from the complications of Gruach’s sexuality and the repression of this patriarchal world caught between the two almost-tidal forces of ancient, native Scottish practices and the encroaching Christian context.
A warning to readers that the brutal treatment Gruach receives at the hands of her eventual-husband Gillecomgan is not for the faint of heart and brings this historical fiction directly into the sights of our contemporary fascination with the likes of “Game of Thrones,” and the sexual violence that viewers found there.
Beyond even the survival of these abominations, we see Gruach imprisoned in a larger cage — men’s expectations and distrust of women. In one scene, Duncan, listening to a conversion with the Latin tutor Oswald, advises Macbeth “No doubt it was women’s counsels that persuaded Aethelred to abandon his armies…beware such advice, my gentle brother, whether from a woman or a monk, or find yourself similarly disgraced.”
Such is the world that Gruach must continually battle throughout the novel, including her own salvation at the hands of Macbeth, and her business-like marriage to him.
In Act III of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, our tragic character admits to his wife “so full of scorpions is my mind.” For a playgoer, either early-modern or contemporary, those scorpions feel contained within the play itself: We understand what rends at Macbeth and the guilt at those choices.
Nieman’s novel does something very difficult to pull off — it shows us where those scorpions began, and how they were once the loss of a father or the abuse of husband, and how they burrowed deep within these characters and waited, patiently, for the moment they would come alive again and haunt them.
Nieman’s “Upon the Corner of the Moon” is a haunting and bloody tale of Scottish history. It’s also a finger tracing along a set of scars, ones we already know are too deep to ever really heal.
Full text below:
About halfway through “Upon the Corner of the Moon” the character of Macbeth — who should be considered a slightly different figure (and perhaps closer to the historical Macbeth) than the character in his eponymously-named, Shakespeare-authored play — encounters a monk in his travels, and in their conversation a question is asked: “Tell me, can one man serve as another’s conscience? Can someone be the conscience for a king?”
This, in many ways, feels more like the question that Shakespeare’s play asks its audiences, whereas Nieman’s novel seems more interested in what the cultural and social apparatus and pressures of the 11th century might have had to do with how that conscience developed and, further, how such a question could come to be asked at all.
Nieman’s novel takes on the difficult task of giving us, as readers, access to a historical context for the Macbeth we know from the oft-performed tragedy, while also engaging us in a clear consideration of the political vicissitudes of a Scotland facing an inevitable religious confrontation between the old ways the new.
The story wanders back and forth between the perspectives of Macbeth and Gruach, who will eventually become Lady Macbeth. It also happens in an entirely linear fashion, with the perspectives and speech patterns of both characters growing and changing as they do. This brings, for a reader, a fascinating blend of emotionally-charged and dramatic moments in a narrative heading toward a final scene that, ostensibly, every reader will anticipate (if they, indeed, remember their high school English classes).
This intense and honestly affecting scene-building Nieman does is the real power underscoring the book. We see a young Macbeth become half-brother to an older and somewhat smug Duncan. And, in the entirety of their relationship throughout the book, which involves each one helping, saving, and learning to love the other, we can’t help but be reminded of the violence and betrayal that will eventually conclude their story.
Gruach, too, has so much to do in her own attempts to survive a world in which she’s been sold off to the most expedient bidder. Nieman doesn’t shy away from the complications of Gruach’s sexuality and the repression of this patriarchal world caught between the two almost-tidal forces of ancient, native Scottish practices and the encroaching Christian context.
A warning to readers that the brutal treatment Gruach receives at the hands of her eventual-husband Gillecomgan is not for the faint of heart and brings this historical fiction directly into the sights of our contemporary fascination with the likes of “Game of Thrones,” and the sexual violence that viewers found there.
Beyond even the survival of these abominations, we see Gruach imprisoned in a larger cage — men’s expectations and distrust of women. In one scene, Duncan, listening to a conversion with the Latin tutor Oswald, advises Macbeth “No doubt it was women’s counsels that persuaded Aethelred to abandon his armies…beware such advice, my gentle brother, whether from a woman or a monk, or find yourself similarly disgraced.”
Such is the world that Gruach must continually battle throughout the novel, including her own salvation at the hands of Macbeth, and her business-like marriage to him.
In Act III of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, our tragic character admits to his wife “so full of scorpions is my mind.” For a playgoer, either early-modern or contemporary, those scorpions feel contained within the play itself: We understand what rends at Macbeth and the guilt at those choices.
Nieman’s novel does something very difficult to pull off — it shows us where those scorpions began, and how they were once the loss of a father or the abuse of husband, and how they burrowed deep within these characters and waited, patiently, for the moment they would come alive again and haunt them.
Nieman’s “Upon the Corner of the Moon” is a haunting and bloody tale of Scottish history. It’s also a finger tracing along a set of scars, ones we already know are too deep to ever really heal.
June 12, 2024
I had the great pleasure of reading Valerie Nieman’s dark, primitive evocation of Scotland, set in the first years of the eleventh century, while I was traveling through the highlands of that country. I tried to picture it wild and overgrown and haunted by bitter weather, a savage land where small kings fought each other for control. When I understood the author was out to retell the story of the notorious Macbeths, I was intrigued. Shakespeare had given them poor press for centuries, but then we know that the great Bard’s historical accuracy evolved from books and legends but mostly from the need to please his new Scottish king. Recorded history is scant so it took trips to research libraries to unearth the lives of people a little more than a thousand years ago and many more journeys through the imagination to create such a novel. This Valerie Nieman has in plenty.
We find the Macbeths first as privileged children of the petty kings, sent away from their homes as was the custom to be fostered by another family until they were grown. So we meet Gruach (many tragic years later to encounter Macbeth) and the young Macbeth, a slight boy always trying to prove himself. Children grew up fast then. The boy Macbeth is ready to be a warrior in mid-adolescence and she at the same age ready to be wed to whoever the reigning petty king disposes. In spite of her delicate training by her foster mother called the White Lady, a healer who is both Christian and pagan, she is married for political expediency to a cruel man. Watching the growth of both Gruach and the boy Macbeth is utterly fascinating. We wait for many pages for them to inevitably meet.
I stood on a hill below a ruined Scottish castle, hoping it was one in which the Macbeths walked, but it was a mere eight hundred years old…missing by a few hundred years being the place where the girl Gruach ran through halls when she was happy, and the boy Macbeth learned the arts of war. The castles and abbeys which sheltered them are long under the earth, waiting for some intrepid archeologist to unearth them. Until then, they are found in the dramatic and fascinating pages of UPON THE CORNER OF THE MOON. The novel is the first part of the story of the very human Macbeths as they might have been; a second book will follow. Were they anything like Shakespeare envisioned them? We will see. This fascinating first part will be released March 2025.
We find the Macbeths first as privileged children of the petty kings, sent away from their homes as was the custom to be fostered by another family until they were grown. So we meet Gruach (many tragic years later to encounter Macbeth) and the young Macbeth, a slight boy always trying to prove himself. Children grew up fast then. The boy Macbeth is ready to be a warrior in mid-adolescence and she at the same age ready to be wed to whoever the reigning petty king disposes. In spite of her delicate training by her foster mother called the White Lady, a healer who is both Christian and pagan, she is married for political expediency to a cruel man. Watching the growth of both Gruach and the boy Macbeth is utterly fascinating. We wait for many pages for them to inevitably meet.
I stood on a hill below a ruined Scottish castle, hoping it was one in which the Macbeths walked, but it was a mere eight hundred years old…missing by a few hundred years being the place where the girl Gruach ran through halls when she was happy, and the boy Macbeth learned the arts of war. The castles and abbeys which sheltered them are long under the earth, waiting for some intrepid archeologist to unearth them. Until then, they are found in the dramatic and fascinating pages of UPON THE CORNER OF THE MOON. The novel is the first part of the story of the very human Macbeths as they might have been; a second book will follow. Were they anything like Shakespeare envisioned them? We will see. This fascinating first part will be released March 2025.
March 7, 2025
With Upon the Corner of the Moon, Valerie Nieman breathes vivid new life into the legend of Macbeth, peeling back centuries of myth to reveal the flesh-and-blood figures who once shaped Scotland’s fate. Immersive, meticulously researched, and deeply evocative, this novel offers a richly textured reimagining of the young Macbeth and Gruach—two children torn from their families, molded by forces beyond their control, and ultimately thrust into a perilous battle for power.
Set at the dawn of the second millennium, the novel follows Macbeth as he navigates the treacherous court of his grandfather, where loyalty is fleeting and blood ties offer no guarantee of safety. Meanwhile, Gruach, raised among the last remnants of the goddess-worshiping Picts, finds herself torn between two worlds—one rooted in ancient traditions and the other in the rising tide of patriarchal rule. As fate and ambition propel them forward, Nieman deftly intertwines prophecy, politics, and personal struggle, crafting a narrative that is as gripping as it is historically illuminating.
What distinguishes Upon the Corner of the Moon is its ability to balance legend and reality without diminishing either. Nieman’s prose is infused with a visceral sense of place, shaped by her own travels through Scotland and her experience of the country’s “thin places”—those mystical, liminal spaces where time seems to slip. This immediacy breathes life into the mist-laden landscapes, the shifting alliances, and the weight of destiny pressing down on Macbeth and Gruach. They emerge not as mere players in a Shakespearean tragedy, but as complex, deeply compelling individuals whose triumphs and losses feel strikingly real.
Fans of historical fiction and mythic retellings—particularly readers of Hilary Mantel, Nicola Griffith, and Signe Pike—will find much to admire here. Nieman’s extensive research, including solo treks through Scotland, lends an undeniable authenticity to the novel, making it not just a gripping read but also a window into a world too often obscured by legend.
A tale of power, fate, and the weight of the past, Upon the Corner of the Moon is both an enthralling read and a remarkable act of literary excavation. Nieman has crafted a novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page, reminding us that history is as much shaped by what is lost as by what is remembered—and that sometimes, legend is the only story we have.
Set at the dawn of the second millennium, the novel follows Macbeth as he navigates the treacherous court of his grandfather, where loyalty is fleeting and blood ties offer no guarantee of safety. Meanwhile, Gruach, raised among the last remnants of the goddess-worshiping Picts, finds herself torn between two worlds—one rooted in ancient traditions and the other in the rising tide of patriarchal rule. As fate and ambition propel them forward, Nieman deftly intertwines prophecy, politics, and personal struggle, crafting a narrative that is as gripping as it is historically illuminating.
What distinguishes Upon the Corner of the Moon is its ability to balance legend and reality without diminishing either. Nieman’s prose is infused with a visceral sense of place, shaped by her own travels through Scotland and her experience of the country’s “thin places”—those mystical, liminal spaces where time seems to slip. This immediacy breathes life into the mist-laden landscapes, the shifting alliances, and the weight of destiny pressing down on Macbeth and Gruach. They emerge not as mere players in a Shakespearean tragedy, but as complex, deeply compelling individuals whose triumphs and losses feel strikingly real.
Fans of historical fiction and mythic retellings—particularly readers of Hilary Mantel, Nicola Griffith, and Signe Pike—will find much to admire here. Nieman’s extensive research, including solo treks through Scotland, lends an undeniable authenticity to the novel, making it not just a gripping read but also a window into a world too often obscured by legend.
A tale of power, fate, and the weight of the past, Upon the Corner of the Moon is both an enthralling read and a remarkable act of literary excavation. Nieman has crafted a novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page, reminding us that history is as much shaped by what is lost as by what is remembered—and that sometimes, legend is the only story we have.
May 4, 2025
In 11th-century Alba (Scotland), young Gruach, the future Lady Macbeth, is sent away from her family to apprentice with a Pict healer. Five-year-old Macbeth is sent from the house of his father, the Mormaer of Moray, to the royal court of his grandfather, King Malcolm II. He comes of age alongside his foster brother, Duncan. While Macbeth is educated to be a leader, Gruach is taught healing arts and Pict traditions, and then summoned back to Malcolm’s court, where she is soon given away in marriage. The journey of the Macbeths is not the famed and false one of Shakespeare, but a mixture of both their true and imagined place in Scotland’s history. This is the first book in the Alba series.
This intriguing novel creates a glimpse of the little-known childhoods of Gruach and Macbeth. Gruach is shown in a much more sympathetic and factual light than in Shakespeare’s play. There are three points of view—Macbeth, Gruach, and a fictional poet, Lapwing. The three witches of Macbeth are replaced in this novel by three spiritual belief systems—Pict, Celtic, and Christian. Gruach’s Pict spiritual experiences are fascinating, and Lapwing still speaks of the Celtic gods, although Christianity is taking over.
The backstabbing politics of a royal court make a compelling read. Macbeth’s journey to becoming Mormaer of Moray will lead him to Gruach. She is married to the cruel, violent, and abusive Gillecomgan. As her brother Nechtan says to Macbeth, “My sister Daimhin—Gruach—know that she is no wife to Gillecomgan, but a hostage, and pregnant.” The novel ends, but not the story, as there will be a second book coming. The writing is beautiful, lyrical, and descriptive, and it captures the period perfectly. To say this book is well-researched is an understatement. Highly recommended.
This intriguing novel creates a glimpse of the little-known childhoods of Gruach and Macbeth. Gruach is shown in a much more sympathetic and factual light than in Shakespeare’s play. There are three points of view—Macbeth, Gruach, and a fictional poet, Lapwing. The three witches of Macbeth are replaced in this novel by three spiritual belief systems—Pict, Celtic, and Christian. Gruach’s Pict spiritual experiences are fascinating, and Lapwing still speaks of the Celtic gods, although Christianity is taking over.
The backstabbing politics of a royal court make a compelling read. Macbeth’s journey to becoming Mormaer of Moray will lead him to Gruach. She is married to the cruel, violent, and abusive Gillecomgan. As her brother Nechtan says to Macbeth, “My sister Daimhin—Gruach—know that she is no wife to Gillecomgan, but a hostage, and pregnant.” The novel ends, but not the story, as there will be a second book coming. The writing is beautiful, lyrical, and descriptive, and it captures the period perfectly. To say this book is well-researched is an understatement. Highly recommended.
October 30, 2024
Upon the Corner of the Moon by Valerie Nieman is a remarkably immersive historical novel of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Set in Scotland in the early second millennium, the novel provides the backstories of this infamous couple, placing them squarely in the larger framework of Scotland’s history, while humanizing them and making them sympathetic. Each is related to the high king Malcolm, who guards his power jealously. Macbeth and Gruach (the future lady Macbeth) are taken from their parents for fostering, and are brought up to be pawns who will exist to support Malcolm’s aims. This is an era of constant warfare and jockeying for power. Christianity has a hold on the people, but the old religion of the Picts has not yet faded away. Macbeth and Gruach are lonely figures who do their best to survive by bending to the king’s will. Yet as time passes, Malcolm ages, and the ambitions of his followers lead them to break oaths and bonds. Macbeth and Gruach are shaped by events, and find each other in the bloody aftermath. The beautiful language of the novel pulls the reader into the cold, brutal world. This is book one of the story, and I’m eager for book two. (I received an ARC of this book for free. That did not influence this review.)
November 15, 2025
Valerie Nieman’s Upon the Corner of the Moon reimagines Macbeth and Gruach amid the brutal politics and ceaseless battles of 11th‑century Scotland. Free of Shakespeare’s flattery, the novel reveals two children shaped by power, betrayal, and survival. Nieman’s poetic prose conjures windswept highlands, cold stone halls, and blood‑soaked battlefields, while weaving in fading Pictish traditions. I was especially captivated by Gruach’s ties to the goddess‑worshiping Picts and the haunting figure of the White Lady, which added spiritual depth. Perfect for readers who love myth, politics, and Scottish history.
March 11, 2025
Upon the Corner of the Moon by Valerie Neiman brilliantly weaves historical truth with the saga of Macbeth. Set against the backdrop of Scotland’s royal intrigues, the story immerses readers in the lives of Macbeth and Gruach, showing their complex journeys toward power, love, and fate. Neiman skillfully separates legend from reality while still paying homage to the mythos, making this a compelling read for anyone fascinated by the true history behind the famous Shakespearean tale. Highly recommend for fans of historical fiction with a twist of legend!
July 4, 2024
I loved Upon the Corner of the Moon! Once I started, I couldn’t get away from it. Each time I had to put it down, I was slightly surprised to find myself in contemporary surroundings, not in 11th century Scotland. Valerie Nieman convincingly establishes the milieu, with attention to local customs, religious currents, political tensions, and immersion in nature. Her handling of language is a consistent joy.
May 12, 2025
This one took me a little while to get into, but once I was in, that was it! Valeries prose is stunning and fitting of the era she writes about. Not knowing anything about Macbeth, other than what I learned and long forgot from the Shakespeare play, I found this story fascinating. I especially loved Gruach's side of the story and her toes dipped in mysticism. Very different from Nieman's last book!
August 7, 2025
Fascinating historical fiction based on the real Macbeth and lady Macbeth, not Shakespeare's inaccurate version. Nieman's extensive research and personal experience with the dramatic landscape bring to life a violent and brutish time--11th Century Scotland. Poetic descriptions and richly imagined characters who grow before our eyes engage our sympathy as kings battle. Can't wait for the next book!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews