As the Women Lay Dreaming

by Donald S. Murray

A novel of the Iolaire disaster. In the small hours of January 1st, 1919, the cruellest twist of fate changed at a stroke the lives of an entire community. Tormod Morrison was there that terrible night. He was on board HMY Iolaire when it smashed into rocks and sank, killing some 200 servicemen on the very last leg of their long journey home from war. For Tormod a man unlike others, with artistry in his fingertips the disaster would mark him indelibly. Two decades later, Alasdair and Rachel are sent to the windswept Isle of Lewis to live with Tormod in his traditional blackhouse home, a world away from the Glasgow of their earliest years. Their grandfather is kind, compassionate, but still deeply affected by the remarkable true story of the Iolaire shipwreck by the selfless heroism and desperate tragedy he witnessed. A deeply moving novel about passion constrained, coping with loss and a changing world, As the Women Lay Dreaming explores how a single event can so dramatically impact communities, individuals and, indeed, our very souls.

Genres: Fiction, Scotland, Historical Fiction, Historical, Book Club

228 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2018

About the author

Donald S. Murray was born in Ness in the Isle of Lewis and taught on Benbecula. An author and journalist, his poetry, prose and verse has been shortlisted for both the Saltire Award and Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. Published widely, his work has also appeared in a number of national anthologies and on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland. He lives and works in Shetland.

Reviews

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the 1st January 1919 HMY Iolaire was bringing servicemen back from active service in WW1. With families waiting at the harbour disaster struck when the yacht sank just yards from the edge of Stornaway harbour with the loss of 200 lives. This was a tragedy of epic proportions, as this isolated Outer Hebridean community had already been greatly affected by losses during the war, and the area, already struggling to cope, never fully recovered. For some, especially those who called these islands home, life would never be the same again.

In 1936, some twenty years after the disaster, and following a family tragedy children Alasdair and Rachel Cruickshank leave Glasgow and are sent to live, with their maternal grandfather Tormod Morrison, on the Isle of Lewis. Tormod's compassionate and understanding nature helps his grandchildren cope with their own sense of grief, and yet, as the book progresses, it becomes obvious that Tormod's own sense of loss runs deep and colours everything about his world. Parts of the book are especially poignant, particularly Tolmod's journal entries from 1918 and yet, there is also a real sense of understanding, not just about the Hebridean way of life, but also about the beauty of really knowing the landscape which shapes your soul.

The book is a sensitive and compassionate look at the effects of this devastating tragedy on a small community and how the scars of such a disaster never really heal. The beauty of the Outer Hebrides and the often bleak landscape act a perfect foil for what is rather a sad story but which is beautifully explained by an author who knows how to bring the history of this community alive.

[John Quirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel based on fact - that in the early hours of January 1st, 1919, as HMY Iolaire was bringing soldiers who had fought in World War I back home to the isle of Lewis, she sank just yards offshore, taking with her a generation of young men - around 200 - from the island.
This is Donald S Murray's first novel, although he's been an acclaimed writer (in several formats) for many years. It's a short book - 211 pages - but it packs one hell of an emotional punch. It takes a slow burn approach, seeing the events leading up to the disaster through the eyes of (the fictional) Tormod Morrison, whose tale is recounted by his grandson, Alasdair. The story unfolds via three timelines - Tormod's wartime journals, a young Alasdair's recollections from 1936, on visiting his grandfather, and an ageing Alasdair, in 1992, looking back.
It's beautifully written, a story, naturally, about the impact of loss, both personally and to a wider community. Indeed, it's not just the loss of lives from the Iolaire disaster - Lewis had a population of less than 30,000 at the time, and of the 6,500 Lewis men who saw action, 1,151 were killed, which was the one of the highest ratios of any community within the British Isles. Living on an Island, it's possible to have some understanding of the devasation it caused.
But Murray casts his net wider than just exploring loss; the novel also studies the complex and delicate relationships that make a family what it is, and it's this aspect that really gives the story its depth and weight. Originally from Lewis, now living in Shetland, Murray writes with a sure-handed knowledge.
In interviews he says he first had the idea for the book 15 or so years ago, but it took him several years to find the right way into the story, and several more to complete the manuscriopt. It's been a labour of love, clearly, and no doubt not an easy book to write. But the rewards - as a reader, and one would hope for the author, too - are great. A fine, fine read.

[Em Langan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book worth a read.
I really enjoyed the discussions and exploration of how privilege grants you safety and security in allowing you to explore your talents and interests. There was a sadness in this book of unfulfilled potential and the weight of familial expectation.

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did appreciate what the author was trying to do here, and understand the cultural and personal history which surely motivated this 'novel based on true events', but it didn't completely work for me as a reader.

Perhaps it was that I'd read just over a third of it before I realised that it was a fictional work, as opposed to a true retelling of the HMY Iolaire disaster of New Year's Day 1919. Perhaps it was my feelings (both before and after this realisation) about the heavy level of romanticisation and sentimentality about the simple but honest folk of Lewis, which at times got a bit too much and was laid on with a trowel. Perhaps too much of the book was filler, put there to try and make the reader care more about the two hundred killed in the sinking of this ship, and the many more affected by this terrible event.

I guess I just would have preferred something less 'created' and more factual, more impartial, more about the sinking of the ship than about the locals impacted. With a mainly fictional stance, Murray to me risked 'reaping drama from deaths' whilst he tried to write a touching tribute to those lost, and this didn't sit comfortably with me all of the time. I was also left with questions about the comparative impact of the HMY Iolaire disaster (~175 military killed) with the overall high toll that the Hebridian island took during WWI (>1,100 killed) , obviously significantly over affected by the war as it was.

So yes, as much as it wasn't completely to my tastes, I do admire the author's choosing to tackle the subject, and would think it a useful and interesting read to those interested in the social history of the area.

[Fiona Dinwoodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I looked against the white waves that lashed the reef and boiled against the rocks as if in fury"

As the Women Lay Dreaming - Donald S Murray ⭐⭐⭐ / 5

HMY Iolaire sank on the approach to Stornoway harbour on 1 January 1919. The men on board were travelling home following the end of WW1. 201 died.

As the Women Lay Dreaming is to story of Tormod who survived the sinking of the Iolaire. It looks at the affect the tragedy had on him but also how WW1, the loss of his daughter and 1st wife and the illness of his sister had on him.
It jumps between 1919 and 1936, when his grandson is reading his journals, then 1992 when Alasdair is looking back.

The description of Tormod's feelings and his life are so vivid and paint a picture of life on the Isle of Lewis that are so detailed that the reader truly understands what Tormod has gone through.

I marked the book down as it jumped about between times and this lessened the strength of the story.

It was poignant to read this book on the 100 anniversary of the sinking of the Iolaire.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Welt von Alasdair und Rachel ändert sich dramatisch, als der Vater nach dem Tod der Mutter sie zu ihrem Großvater auf die Hebrideninsel Lewis abschiebt. Alles dort ist ihnen fremd: sie kannten den Großvater nur aus den Erzählungen ihrer Mutter, das Haus der Großeltern ist ganz anders als die Wohnung in Glasgow und die Menschen sprechen eine andere Sprache. Es dauert lange, bis die beiden Kinder sich auf der unwirtlichen Insel zuhause fühlen.

Die Geschichte hat viele Handlungsstränge. Zum einen die der beiden Geschwister, die in winzig kleinen Schritten ihr neues Zuhause als solches akzeptieren und eine Beziehung zu ihrem Großvater aufbauen können. Der hat selbst eine tragische Vergangenheit: als junger Mann war er einer der wenigen Überlebenden des Untergangs der Iolaire, bei der am 1. Januar 1919 über 200 Kriegsheimkehrer ums Leben kamen. Tormods Geschichte selbst teilt sich in verschiedene Teile: die Erlebnisse während des Kriegs und danach, als er seine große Liebe verlor und danach eine reine Zweckehe eingehen musste.

Tormod spricht nie über das, was ihm zugestoßen ist. Weder mit seinen Enkeln noch mit seiner Frau. Die Ehe der Beiden, die​ anfangs auf Respekt beruht haben mag, wird nur noch durch Resignation und Verbitterung zusammengehalten und die Beiden sind darin gefangen. Alasdair und Rachel bringen ein wenig Licht in das trübe Leben, aber das ist nur von kurzer Dauer.

Der Autor hat es mir schwer gemacht, das Buch wirklich zu mögen. Jeder der Handlungsstränge wäre eine eigene Geschichte wert gewesen, aber auf den etwas über 200 Seiten war nicht genug Platz, um sie stimmig zu erzählen. Gerade in der Entwicklung der Kinder gab es Lücken​ und über Tormods Erlebnisse im Krieg hätte ich gerne mehr erfahren. Ein paar Mal hatte ich das Gefühl, dass eine Idee angerissen wurde, aber die Ausführung mittendrin abbrach. Die Erzählung hatte viel Schönes, aber es hat sich für mich nicht zu einem Ganzen verbunden.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whilst I knew this book was about the sinking of HMY Iolaire, I must also have formed a preconception of how the novel would unfold. I’m pleased my preconceived ideas of the type of novel it was going to be, were miles off their mark. The sense of dread hanging in the pages of the opening chapter reinforced this perception. Here we go, I thought, another Scottish novel that constantly kicks you in the stomach , just to make you feel bad about being Scottish and remind you never to get ideas above your station, because as a Scot, you are born to suffer. Life exists just to be intolerable.

Instead, what follows is a carefully crafted, artistically executed retelling of the catastrophic sinking of the Iolaire on New Year’s Day, a ship packed with soldiers returning home to their families, finally free from the brutality of World War I. Or so they thought. The novel builds to this moment through a series of character sketches, reminiscences and retelling of key scenes from the main characters’ lives through three generations of a family. Despite the title, it is a story primarily told through the eyes of the menfolk. The women are present but the voices are predominantly male. These are flawed characters though, men who have signed up to a war sold by the patriarchy on a broken promise of land for their families. Men who carry a burden of masculinity, their own sense of self and dreams at odds with their community’s expectations. It’s the inner glimpses of the characters’ psyche, words spoken and buried thoughts unspoken, that give this novel its power. There is an elegance and grace in these paragraphs. The author writes with such lyrical power that I at times I had to remind myself I wasn’t reading Neil M Gunn’s ‘Highland River’. Maybe it was similar themes of war, psychogeography and family relationships, but I feel it was more down to this writer’s craft.

The community life depicted is authentic. You know this author knows island life. Knows his people. Importantly, this is a novel that gives voice to those lost in the war who were quite simply from the wrong background to have their stories told; uneducated and working class whilst the ruling elites ensured their stories were amplified through time, not lost with the wreckage of the fallen vessel they died to serve. This is an important book. This is a breathtaking book. A modern masterpiece.

[Kait Leeming · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a novel based on the Isle of Lewis and tells the story of Tormod, former soldier, bereaved father and now grandfather caring for two young children who have been shipped to ‘backwards’ Lewis from the heady heights of Glasgow upon their mother’s death.

The book is an attempt at a fictional retelling of the Iolaire, a cruiser that went down of the coast of Stornaway carrying more than 200 men returning from WW1 and tries to highlight the impact upon survivors and communities. Unfortunately it doesn’t do it very well.

The event itself is fascinating and tragic but that takes up less than 10% of the book. The majority of the 220 pages is about the kids travelling to Lewis in 1939 and trying to acclimatise to the rural way of life. It’s like two stories sandwiched together one trying to be the vehicle to step into the other but just failing. By the time the Iolaire sinks, there’s just not been enough character development for the soldiers to care, I just wasn’t invested enough in any of them for it to be the moving piece it should’ve been

[Mary Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The atmospheric descriptions of island life in Scotland were really good. The book tells the story of navel activity in the First World War. The family lives destroyed when large numbers of the young men from the islands died during the war. Although the relationships between a grandfather and his two very young grandchildren is short lived the emotional is transmitted in a very thoughful and emotional way.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Met een groot inlevingsvermogen en een heel prettige vertelstem geschreven historische roman die zich afspeelt op The Isle of Lewis. Niet gedramatiseerd of geromantiseerd, wel van een intieme krachtige schoonheid.

Het was weer een boek dat paste in mijn rijtje ‘roots’, het leven van de gewone man op een eiland in de Buiten Hebriden (mijn overgrootvader) en de impact van de eerste wereldoorlog (twee van zijn zonen en mijn grootvader).

Even verder in het Engels.
On January 1 of 1919, a ship named the HMY Iolaire (Scottish Gaelic for sea eagle) was about to enter Stornoway harbour on the Isle of Lewis, one of the Outer Hebrides' islands off the coast of Scotland. She carried 283 men who had survived WW1, eager to return home. In the dark, early hours of 1919 a storm came up and the Iolaire smashed against the rocks, the ‘Beasts of Holm' ('Biastan Thuilm' in Gaelic) only yards away from land. Of the roughly 284 men on board – from middle-aged veterans to boys in their teens – only eighty survived.

Just imagine the impact it had on the community, the intense longing to see their sons, brothers, loved ones after such a long harsh time, seeing the ship approach and sink, unable to save them. Not until the next day as the waves came in, throwing the bodies up onto the shore.

1936, Alasdair and Rachel are sent to the windswept Isle of Lewis to live with Tormod in his traditional blackhouse home, a world away from the Glasgow of their earliest years. Their grandfather is kind, compassionate, but still deeply affected by the remarkable true story of the Iolaire shipwreck – by the selfless heroism and desperate tragedy he witnessed.

Donald S Murray‘s novel tells the story through the eyes of Alasdair and Tormod. He combines fact with fiction, showing how the great losses of The War, the Iolaire disaster, but also emigration effected life on the island. How silent the community was, not daring to talk about it, bearing their burden in silence and how painfully lonely they were that way.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

On 1st January 2019, the Iolaire boat was bringing home almost 300 servicemen after the end of the First World War when it hit rocks just outside Stornoway Harbour and sank, resulting in the deaths of over 200 men just yards from the shore.

As The Women Lay Dreaming looks at the effect the Iolaire tragedy had on one of the survivors, the fictional Tormod Morrison. It is told partly through the voice of his grandson Alasdair who, following another family tragedy, is sent with his sister to live with his grandparents on Lewis almost twenty years after the disaster. He finds a quiet man who has clearly been marked by his experiences. But Tormod teaches Alasdair to observe all that is around him, to appreciate the beauty of nature around him, no matter how dark life may be. Tormod is an artistic man, a talented sketcher who drew what he saw when he was in the trenches. I always had the sense that he felt trapped by his life, trapped due to various things which happened to his brother, his wife and his community. Nature and drawing was his escape from the darkness, a reminder that there is always beauty to be found.

Not surprisingly for someone from the Hebrides, Donald Murray descriptions of the island are highly detailed and make it easy to visualise the beautiful though often bleak landscape. He vividly describes the dark and smoky living conditions in the blackhouses and, for the time, more modern whitehouses and it is clear to see how harsh life on the islands could be. His understanding of Lewis culture and heritage comes across clearly and gives the reader an insight into Hebridean life in the early 20th Century.

Drawing on his own family history and experiences, Donald Murray paints an evocative picture of how intensely the tragedy affected the Lewis community, with the effects echoing down through the generations. It is a beautifully written tale and a moving insight into how a tragedy can shape a community and an individual.

[Sue Bridgwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a subtle and moving book that sidles towards the devastation of Jan 1st 2019 and sets it in the context of the privations of life on Lewis and Harris before WW1 plus the lasting after-effects of the sinking of the Iolaire on those communities. It stands with Anne MacLeod's 'The dark ship' as a testament to the tragedy, but perhaps leads the reader more directly, though the characters, into the lives of the people of Ness in north Lewis.

I have read many books on the Western Isles and often visited Lewis and Harris. We outside visitors of course tend towards sentimentality for the past that is not even ours to mourn; this novel gives a wider prospect of sorrow, regret, exploitation and pain. 'What a beautiful place to live' is easy for us to say.

Read this.

[Richard Hoare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight, beautifully understated novel which has at its thematic centre and fictional climax the tragic sinking of the Iolaire bringing as it brought back servicemen at the end of the First World War to the Outer Hebridean Isles. The events are recounted from three historic perspectives: the grandfather's experience of the First World War, a stay by the narrator as a boy on Lewis in 1936 and the narrator as an older man looking back on his experiences in 1992. This allows lives and events to be gradually revealed and to gain in depth as the novel progresses. The actual disaster is only recounted at the end but is the event which makes sense of much of what has gone before. A deft, moving account of Hebridean life which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book interesting, but was not crazy about it. Part of the book is told by Tormod Morrison, a sailor for the British Navy during World War I. He relates his experiences during the war and then back on his farm on the Isle of Lewis. And there is the story of Tormod's grandson, Alasdair, who lives with Tonmod and is wife for less than a year after is mother dies.

Tormod is on a ship full of sailors and soldiers returning to Lewis that hits the rocks and sinks off the coast. Most on the ship die. A tragedy that marks his life and the life of the people on the island.

I have read very little about the sailors of World War I, so that was interesting and life on Lewis was interesting, but the book just never really grabbed me. Certainly interesting.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an evocative novel that explores the impact of a WW1 naval disaster on a small island community in Scotland, across several generations. Its structure works well, and Murray develops the voice of both the narrator and his Grandfather by exploring their experiences of life on the island and elsewhere. Beginning with a short extract in the tenements of Glasgow, the book sets up an interesting contradiction between working on a croft within a rural landscape, and the men who travelled around the world during the war, two worlds which collided during the Iolaire Disaster. It was moving to read this novel a few days before the one-hundredth anniversary of this event.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting topic, and I enjoyed the descriptive writing about life in the isles, but the writing style did not suit me (at times I felt like I was reading a children’s story). Though I like the idea of making the reader travel through time to experience the long-term impacts of the Iolaire disaster, I did not care for the way in which this was done: if the reader is supposedly being redirected to 1912, for instance, then I expect to read Tormod’s thoughts from 1912 directly, but moving backwards in time in this novel doesn’t actually always change the narrative point of view or temporal situation. This inconsistency kept throwing me off as a reader.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visiting Lewis last month, we passed a sign indicating the 'Iolaire Memorial'. A brief discussion had us agree it was a ship tragedy, but neither knew the details, so spotting this in a supermarket less than an hour later made its purchase imperative.
Finishing it today and admitting I found the framing of it somewhat muddling, I have to admit it created a vivid emotional involvement with the characters, but at the same time the structure of the telling felt loose enough to have me lost in the reading of it.

[Olga Wojtas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, powerful and poignant novel based on the Iolaire disaster of 1919, when the naval vessel bringing servicemen home to the Western Isles sank in sight of home with the loss of 200 lives. It examines the impact of the tragedy across the generations, against the backdrop of life in the Hebrides. The author, himself a Lewisman, creates a vivid and touching account of love and loss.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told with beautiful prose and sensitivity, this poignant story of the Iolaire disaster looks at how generations of this community were affected. The descriptive, almost poetic language really drew me into the story and the lives of the characters. This book is a gem and I couldn't put if down.

[Somersetlovestoread · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully evocative novel of life in the Western Isles and the revelation of the tragedy of the Iolaire and the fact that the highest per capita loss of life from any community in WW1 was in The Hebrides.
Having reached the end, I was haunted by this novel and its title sums that up succinctly. After years of war and on the cusp of their men reaching home, the sleeping wives and mothers are robbed of their men in a terrible accident.
This sets the scene for the book without giving away any spoilers because this is not the plot but the setting for the characters whose lives we visit within the pages.
A great book reminiscent of Robert Seethaler's 'A Whole Life' where world events affect and influence but ultimately the life of a small community and its inhabitants that represents continuity.

[Helen Paterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a poetic read.
I enjoyed every part of this and especially the way the author interspersed each chapter as diary entries followed by his experience followed by ‘current day’.
The authors notes at the end are well worth a read too, although only do so when you’ve read the book as there are some spoilers.

[Cheryl Ricer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting first person story on the centennial of the sinking of the troop ship Iolaire off the Isle of Lewis. The story weaves through 4 generations of Islanders and their lives in the WW1 era.

[Jill Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully told re-imagining of a historical truth. Sensitively dealing with themes of guilt, loss, grief, and family it ultimately inspires hope for the healing of a community. A powerful read of an indefensibly low profile WW1 tragedy.

[Robert Burgon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly remarkable work of fiction, based on an actual tragedy which occurred in Stornoway on 1 January 1919 (and about which I knew nothing). I enjoyed the way in which the author takes his readers into the situation. This is probably a book which I will re-read at some point in time.

[Mags · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful wandering tale about the aftermath of WW1 and the Iolaire disaster on small Hebridean communities. Also a look at the small communities in the Outer Hebrides.

Lovely and vivid book.

[Mary Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not get into this at all. It feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity in the context of the horrors suffered by naval fleets during the wars.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrically written, there is a gradual build up to the disaster. I will be reading his second novel.

[Alan Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book. Beautifully written and so sad. Lovely pictures of Lewis and awful pictures of the war. An outstanding book.

[Maddison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot to add this to goodreads, i finished it a few days ago - for my own records, on the train from Budapest to Munich. Enjoyable at a steady pace and easy to read

[Brigit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved the descriptiveness and immersiveness of the writing. The buildup to the last couple sections was tense, in a very northern european way. A lovely change of pace to what I normally read.