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Das Tal in der Mitte der Welt
Shetland - Schafe und Natur, unbarmherziges Wetter, enge Bindungen und althergebrachte Lebensweisen. Hier, in dem Tal auf einer kleinen Insel, hat David sein ganzes Leben verbracht, wie vor ihm sein Vater und sein Großvater. Hier will Sandy eine neue Heimat finden, hier hat Alice nach dem Tod ihres Mannes Zuflucht gesucht. Aber die Zeiten ändern sich, Menschen sterben oder ziehen weg, und David fragt sich, wie die Geschichten und Traditionen seines Tals weitergeführt werden sollen, während andere zweifeln, ob sie jemals dazugehören werden. Die Geschichte des kleinen Tals birgt die ganze Welt.
381 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2018
28 people are currently reading
1081 people want to read
About the author
Malachy Tallack
12 books120 followersMalachy Tallack has written three works of non-fiction – Sixty Degrees North, The Un-Discovered Islands and Illuminated by Water – and two novels, The Valley at the Centre of the World and That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz. He won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014, and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. As a singer-songwriter he has released five albums and an EP, and performed in venues across the UK. He is from Shetland, and currently lives in Fife.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
January 11, 2022
I listened to the audio of this debut novel by Malachy Tallack, narrated by Robert Williamson, set in a remote Shetland valley. I was surprised at how quickly I became immersed in the lives of this dying community, related in a quiet and understated prose, although I think those readers and listeners who need something with more action will find this a more disappointing experience. David represents the embodiment of the place, a history and an ancient way of living that is fast disappearing, a man centred in the present. Sandy arrived on the island with David's daughter, Emma, but she has just left him and gone to Edinburgh, but he feels in his bones that he wants to stay, but won't it be awkward? However, when a resident dies, David offers him the croft that after much thought, he accepts. This leads to newcomers arriving, adding elements of further change.
The author's love for the place is embedded in this narrative of community, an inheritance, a responsibility, the inevitable changes that are inescapable, with a range of characters that include an alcoholic, and Alice who moved here after the loss of her husband and is writing about the place, people and its history, researching Maggie's life. This is as much about place as it is about the lives and stories of the residents. This is a wonderfully riveting and insightful read, (listen), which I recommend to those drawn to this part of Scotland and want to know more about Shetland and its people.
The author's love for the place is embedded in this narrative of community, an inheritance, a responsibility, the inevitable changes that are inescapable, with a range of characters that include an alcoholic, and Alice who moved here after the loss of her husband and is writing about the place, people and its history, researching Maggie's life. This is as much about place as it is about the lives and stories of the residents. This is a wonderfully riveting and insightful read, (listen), which I recommend to those drawn to this part of Scotland and want to know more about Shetland and its people.
October 25, 2018
Essence
Whether we live in a heavily populated metropolis or a sparsely populated and isolated valley, the Centre of OUR World is our family, friends, and the environment we live and work in. Malachy Tallack has written a great book capturing various facets of life and presented them in a small remote community in the Shetland Islands: love and rejection, happiness and despair, achievement and failure, generosity and greed, life and death. The valley in many respects is a microcosm of the global world we live in, a world where culture, technology, ambitions and principles, are experiencing increasing forces of change. The only thing that remains durable is geology and natural history, which forms the bedrock of any place. Malachy has layered elements of history and an ancestral connection with the Valley to create a nostalgic atmosphere and an attempt to hold on as much as possible to the old ways.
Sandy is one of the central characters and he is a man you will feel a lot of empathy and warmth towards, he doesn’t get it easy, he tries to learn the old ways. His partner Emma has just left him and he is unsure where his next move will be or what he hopes to achieve in life, so he needs time to think. He decides to remain in the Valley and work with David, Emma's father. David and his wife Mary are an elderly couple who provide a wonderful stability about the valley. David is a character that offers so much strength, wisdom and fortitude. He seems so perfectly balanced, neither living in the past nor worrying about the future, he just lives in the moment, and that moment is life itself. Not all the characters are good and the range of personalities is well balanced, from David to an alcoholic man consequentially destroying his life and relationships, and an opportunist that is greedy and avaricious and represents a growing sense of self-serving to the detriment of his friends and neighbours.
I felt slightly discontented with the first half of the book because it was all character development and I just wanted something else to happen. The characterisation, in itself, was superb and that became so apparent in the second half of the story because I became really really attached and interested in what was happening with each person.
At times it seemed that we were on the verge of a surprise or an event that would add a bit of spice to the storyline but it didn’t happen often enough, and several threads just meandered along. The use of the local Shetland dialect is likely to be a personal choice for readers. It did slow me down quite a lot, needing to reread to make sure I was picking it up right. It does introduce authenticity to the narration but affects the pace and grasp of what was happening.
Overall I really enjoyed the story, the characters were brilliant and I would highly recommend reading this book. Many thanks to Canongate Books Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.
Whether we live in a heavily populated metropolis or a sparsely populated and isolated valley, the Centre of OUR World is our family, friends, and the environment we live and work in. Malachy Tallack has written a great book capturing various facets of life and presented them in a small remote community in the Shetland Islands: love and rejection, happiness and despair, achievement and failure, generosity and greed, life and death. The valley in many respects is a microcosm of the global world we live in, a world where culture, technology, ambitions and principles, are experiencing increasing forces of change. The only thing that remains durable is geology and natural history, which forms the bedrock of any place. Malachy has layered elements of history and an ancestral connection with the Valley to create a nostalgic atmosphere and an attempt to hold on as much as possible to the old ways.
Sandy is one of the central characters and he is a man you will feel a lot of empathy and warmth towards, he doesn’t get it easy, he tries to learn the old ways. His partner Emma has just left him and he is unsure where his next move will be or what he hopes to achieve in life, so he needs time to think. He decides to remain in the Valley and work with David, Emma's father. David and his wife Mary are an elderly couple who provide a wonderful stability about the valley. David is a character that offers so much strength, wisdom and fortitude. He seems so perfectly balanced, neither living in the past nor worrying about the future, he just lives in the moment, and that moment is life itself. Not all the characters are good and the range of personalities is well balanced, from David to an alcoholic man consequentially destroying his life and relationships, and an opportunist that is greedy and avaricious and represents a growing sense of self-serving to the detriment of his friends and neighbours.
I felt slightly discontented with the first half of the book because it was all character development and I just wanted something else to happen. The characterisation, in itself, was superb and that became so apparent in the second half of the story because I became really really attached and interested in what was happening with each person.
At times it seemed that we were on the verge of a surprise or an event that would add a bit of spice to the storyline but it didn’t happen often enough, and several threads just meandered along. The use of the local Shetland dialect is likely to be a personal choice for readers. It did slow me down quite a lot, needing to reread to make sure I was picking it up right. It does introduce authenticity to the narration but affects the pace and grasp of what was happening.
Overall I really enjoyed the story, the characters were brilliant and I would highly recommend reading this book. Many thanks to Canongate Books Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.
May 10, 2018
I’d previously enjoyed Malachy Tallack’s two nonfiction books, Sixty Degrees North and The Undiscovered Islands. In his debut novel he returns to Shetland, where he spent some of his growing-up and early adult years, to sketch out a small community and the changes it undergoes over about ten months. Sandy has lived in this valley for three years with Emma, but she left him the day before the action opens. Unsure what to do now, he sticks around to help her father, David, butcher the lambs. After their 90-year-old neighbor, Maggie, dies, Sandy takes over her croft. Other valley residents include Ryan and Jo, a troubled young couple; Terry, a single dad; and Alice, who moved here after her husband’s death and is writing a human and natural history of the place, The Valley at the Centre of the World. (This strand reminded me of Annalena McAfee’s Hame.)
The prose is reminiscent of the American plain-speaking style of books set in the South or Appalachia – Richard Ford, Walker Percy, Ron Rash and the like. We dive deep into this tight-knit community and its secrets. It’s an offbeat blend of primitive and modern: the minimalism of the crofting life contrasts with the global reach of Facebook, for instance. When Ryan and Jo host a housewarming party, all the characters are brought together at about the halfway point, and some relationships start to shift. Overall, though, this is a slow and meandering story. Don’t expect any huge happenings, just some touching reunions and terrific scenes of manual labor. David is my favorite character, an almost biblical patriarch who seems “to live in a kind of eternal present, looking neither forward nor backward but always, somehow, towards the land.”
Tallack has taken a risk by writing in phonetic Shetland dialect. David’s speech is particularly impenetrable. The dialect does rather intrude; the expository passages are a relief. I’ve been to Shetland once, in 2006. This quiet story of belonging versus being an outsider is one to reread there some years down the line: I reckon I’d appreciate it more on location.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The prose is reminiscent of the American plain-speaking style of books set in the South or Appalachia – Richard Ford, Walker Percy, Ron Rash and the like. We dive deep into this tight-knit community and its secrets. It’s an offbeat blend of primitive and modern: the minimalism of the crofting life contrasts with the global reach of Facebook, for instance. When Ryan and Jo host a housewarming party, all the characters are brought together at about the halfway point, and some relationships start to shift. Overall, though, this is a slow and meandering story. Don’t expect any huge happenings, just some touching reunions and terrific scenes of manual labor. David is my favorite character, an almost biblical patriarch who seems “to live in a kind of eternal present, looking neither forward nor backward but always, somehow, towards the land.”
Tallack has taken a risk by writing in phonetic Shetland dialect. David’s speech is particularly impenetrable. The dialect does rather intrude; the expository passages are a relief. I’ve been to Shetland once, in 2006. This quiet story of belonging versus being an outsider is one to reread there some years down the line: I reckon I’d appreciate it more on location.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
September 19, 2023
>>...Das Tal ergab irgendwie einen Sinn. Hier hatte er sich geschützt gefühlt vor der zerstückelten Welt, die ihm früher so bedrohlich erschienen war. Hier fühlte er sich vom Ort absorbiert, ohne von ihm zerstört zu werden. <<
"Das Tal in der Mitte der Welt" von Malachy Tallack, aus dem Englischen von Klaus Berr übersetzt, war für mich eine sehr besondere Lektüre.
Die Geschichte führt uns in ein kleines Tal, in ein kleines Dorf auf den schottischen Shetlands und hinein in eine kleine Gemeinschaft, die genau wie die Welt, genau wie die Zeit und das Land immer irgendwie im Wandel ist. Und doch... bleiben die sturen Wurzeln haften und verzweigen sich mit dem Fortlauf der Zeit.
In ruhig erzählten kleinen Sequenzen begegnen wir den Bewohner des Tals. Wir erfahren von der Geschichte, den Menschen die dort lebten und noch immer dort Leben. Wir begleiten ihren Alltag, ihre Sorgen und vor allem ihr Miteinander.
Neben der rauen Natur und der Abgeschiedenheit, die mich hier wirklich sehr für sich gewinnen konnte, war es der Zusammenhalt und das Zwischenmenschliche, was für mich in dieser Geschichte sehr greifbar wurde und mich berührt hat. Es entstehen über Jahre starke Banden, und manchmal müssen sie auch schon notgedrungen in kurzer Zeit entstehen. Es kommen und gehen Menschen... und doch ist das Land immer noch das Land... in all seiner rauen kargen Schönheit, ein Tal, fernab des Troubles der Städte... und immer wieder ein Ort der zum Zuhause wird...
Wer ruhige Erzählungen und den Fokus auf Zwischenmenschlichkeit mag, dem tieferen zwischen den Zeilen nicht abgeneigt ist, der könnte hier vielleicht einen kleinen ganz besonderen Buchschatz für sich entdecken- mir erging es auf jeden Fall so💖
"Das Tal in der Mitte der Welt" von Malachy Tallack, aus dem Englischen von Klaus Berr übersetzt, war für mich eine sehr besondere Lektüre.
Die Geschichte führt uns in ein kleines Tal, in ein kleines Dorf auf den schottischen Shetlands und hinein in eine kleine Gemeinschaft, die genau wie die Welt, genau wie die Zeit und das Land immer irgendwie im Wandel ist. Und doch... bleiben die sturen Wurzeln haften und verzweigen sich mit dem Fortlauf der Zeit.
In ruhig erzählten kleinen Sequenzen begegnen wir den Bewohner des Tals. Wir erfahren von der Geschichte, den Menschen die dort lebten und noch immer dort Leben. Wir begleiten ihren Alltag, ihre Sorgen und vor allem ihr Miteinander.
Neben der rauen Natur und der Abgeschiedenheit, die mich hier wirklich sehr für sich gewinnen konnte, war es der Zusammenhalt und das Zwischenmenschliche, was für mich in dieser Geschichte sehr greifbar wurde und mich berührt hat. Es entstehen über Jahre starke Banden, und manchmal müssen sie auch schon notgedrungen in kurzer Zeit entstehen. Es kommen und gehen Menschen... und doch ist das Land immer noch das Land... in all seiner rauen kargen Schönheit, ein Tal, fernab des Troubles der Städte... und immer wieder ein Ort der zum Zuhause wird...
Wer ruhige Erzählungen und den Fokus auf Zwischenmenschlichkeit mag, dem tieferen zwischen den Zeilen nicht abgeneigt ist, der könnte hier vielleicht einen kleinen ganz besonderen Buchschatz für sich entdecken- mir erging es auf jeden Fall so💖
December 8, 2017
With many thanks to Canongate via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.
We follow a handful of characters over one year, the people living in five houses on a road in a valley in rural Shetland. These people have been drawn to this place for varying personal reasons - on a wave of optimism for a fresh start, as a refuge from a difficult world, as a cynical way of making money - apart from the central character David, who has lived here all his life, working the family croft, and never wanted to be anywhere else. Individuals and relationships come and go, but David remains fixed in the landscape, rooted to his valley.
‘David had seemed to have an odd relationship with time. He didn’t look towards the future, the way others did, but nor was he stuck in the past. David seemed to live in a kind of eternal present, looking neither forward nor backward but always, somehow, towards the land.’
‘The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was much older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time. It was a thread of memory that stretched back for as long as people had lived in this place. It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on. That recognition brought with it a fearful kind of responsibility, as though he had been handed something he knew he could not help but break.’
The major strengths of this book for me are the atmosphere he creates, the serenity of the place and an age-old way of life, and the character of David, as unchanging as his valley. The writing here is a fine example of less is more. Little happens, one season follows another and the cycle of life goes round at the same pace it has for generations. As newcomer Alice finds when she tries to research Maggie’s life (a woman who was born and died in this place), the valley itself transcends individuals’ stories. The author writes with clarity and insight, and his passion for the place shines through.
As he points out at the end, he had to make a difficult decision about whether and how to write in Shetland dialect. The compromise he reaches by presenting the grammar and rhythm of the dialect, and using as little unfamiliar vocabulary as possible, worked for me. I’m not sure the glossary is needed, certainly I didn’t refer to it once I started reading.
We follow a handful of characters over one year, the people living in five houses on a road in a valley in rural Shetland. These people have been drawn to this place for varying personal reasons - on a wave of optimism for a fresh start, as a refuge from a difficult world, as a cynical way of making money - apart from the central character David, who has lived here all his life, working the family croft, and never wanted to be anywhere else. Individuals and relationships come and go, but David remains fixed in the landscape, rooted to his valley.
‘David had seemed to have an odd relationship with time. He didn’t look towards the future, the way others did, but nor was he stuck in the past. David seemed to live in a kind of eternal present, looking neither forward nor backward but always, somehow, towards the land.’
‘The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was much older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time. It was a thread of memory that stretched back for as long as people had lived in this place. It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on. That recognition brought with it a fearful kind of responsibility, as though he had been handed something he knew he could not help but break.’
The major strengths of this book for me are the atmosphere he creates, the serenity of the place and an age-old way of life, and the character of David, as unchanging as his valley. The writing here is a fine example of less is more. Little happens, one season follows another and the cycle of life goes round at the same pace it has for generations. As newcomer Alice finds when she tries to research Maggie’s life (a woman who was born and died in this place), the valley itself transcends individuals’ stories. The author writes with clarity and insight, and his passion for the place shines through.
As he points out at the end, he had to make a difficult decision about whether and how to write in Shetland dialect. The compromise he reaches by presenting the grammar and rhythm of the dialect, and using as little unfamiliar vocabulary as possible, worked for me. I’m not sure the glossary is needed, certainly I didn’t refer to it once I started reading.
March 19, 2020
Not a first visit to Shetland islands for me. No, first time was with the eponymous BBC show. One with relatively forgettable prototypical small town cop sort of theme, but absolutely unforgettable scenery. Well, this time returning, a proper literary armchair travel, is much much lovelier. Something about the quiet beauty of this book really resonated with me. And quiet it is indeed, nothing much occurs, just a small cast of characters navigated the vagaries of life and specifically life in a small isolated community with inviting views and forbidding weather. At the centre of the centre of the valley is David and Mary, an older couple, who are the soul of the place. The person older than them has recently passed away, their daughters left, although the boyfriend of one of them chose to stay behind and tries to make a go of it as a crofter with David’s support. Seriously, though, not a plot driven novel, so let’s talk about all the other things that make it great. The descriptions…ah, the author really does justice to his setting and you as a reader can get transported through sheer power of written word all the way to a subarctic archipelago in the Northern isles of Scotland. Pure literary magic. And then there’s the language…which actually initially almost had me pass this book by, all the mentions of phonetic dialect use, that can so really difficult to read and enjoy, but here somehow it works so well. It is mostly David who speaks the proper Shetlandic and though on the paper it looks positively wooly (and why wouldn’t it, given the number of sheep around) when you read it somehow it comes alive, you can actually hear David as it were and it helps immerse you in the atmosphere of the place all the more. In fact, David is perfect stand in for his beloved isle, he is constant, fair, kind, good person, good worker, loves the place he lives in completely and has no desire to be anywhere other than. Wherein his wife has come to love it through association and his not quite son in law is trying it out for size, for David there has never been a question about it, the man knows where he belongs. And through this book you might appreciate why. The sea alone, to be surrounded by it, even the Northern waters, there’s something majestic about that. So there you have it, a lovely novel with lovely characters set in a stunning place of natural beauty. It’s a sort of book to disappear into for a while and with the world being what it is, why wouldn’t you want to. I enjoyed this one very much. Such an engaging reading experience. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
September 2, 2021
Der Hintergrund für Malachy Tallacks Roman ist ein Tal auf Shetland. Die Geschichte folgt mehreren Charakteren, die dieses Tal bewohnen. Da sind zunächst David und Marie, für die das Tal ihre Heimat ist und deren beide Töchter weggezogen sind. Maggie, die älteste Talbewohnerin stirbt gleich zu Beginn des Romans und hinterlässt eine Lücke im Leben der anderen. Alice ist hingegen eine junge Schriftstellerin, die nach dem Tod ihres Mannes in das Tal geflüchtet ist. Sie arbeitet an einem Buch über die Geschichte und die Natur des Tals. Terry wurde von seiner Frau verstoßen und fristet im Tal ein Leben als einsamer Alkoholiker. Dann ist da noch Sandy, der von Emma verlassen wurde und nun von David lernt, wie man seinen eigenen Bauernhof führt. Schließlich sind Ryan und Jo kürzlich aus der Stadt in das Tal gezogen, weil sie sich finanzielle Vorteile erhoffen. Für jeden dieser Charaktere bedeutet das Tal etwas anderes. Heimat, Neuanfang, Verlust und Profit prägen ihre Beziehung zu dem Ort, in dem sie leben.
Tallack beschreibt seine Charaktere meisterhaft und lässt sie menschlich und nahbar erscheinen. Ihr Leben, Denken und Handeln ist geprägt von Verlust und Schicksalsschlägen, von Familien- und Beziehungsproblemen, aber auch von der Tatsache, dass sie alle im Tal zusammenkommen, dass sich ihre Wege kreuzen, sie sich gegenseitig helfen und füreinander da sind.
Die Figuren sind die Mitte ihrer eigenen Welt und das Tal schließt sie ein, gibt ihnen einen sicheren Hafen. Es ist ein Mikrokosmos, eine abgeschlossene Welt, in der jeder einzelne zählt, in der alle etwas zu sagen haben. Jede einzelne Figur macht das Tal zu dem, was es ist und trägt mit ihrer Geschichte zu einem großen Ganzen bei.
Neben der Gemeinschaft ist auch die Körperlichkeit und Rauheit des Lebens und der Arbeit ein Thema, das den Roman auszeichnet. Schon gleich zu Beginn wird der Leser mit einer Schlachtszene konfrontiert und immer wieder ist die Arbeit mit und gegen die Natur in der Geschichte präsent, wenn zum Beispiel Gräben im Schlamm gegraben werden müssen, Zäune repariert werden oder Lämmer sterben. Es sind sicherlich auch diese Szenen, die dazu beitragen, dass der Roman oft wie aus der Zeit gegriffen zu sein scheint.
Der Autor lässt sich beim Erzählen seiner Geschichte Zeit und richtet sich nach dem Lebensrhythmus der Talbewohner. Es sind die leisen Töne, die die Geschichte auszeichnen. Sie bedarf keiner Spannung und keiner großen und unerwarteten Wendepunkte, um ihre Wirkung vollständig zu entfalten. Die Ruhe und die Langsamkeit, die sie ausstrahlt, harmonieren mit der Ursprünglichkeit der Landschaft, die in ihr beschrieben wird und mit der Einfachheit des Lebens im Tal.
Malachy Tallack hat ein wunderbares Buch über das Leben in einem Tal auf Shetland geschrieben, das von Gemeinschaft, von Wetter, Stürmen und dem Atlantik bestimmt wird. Er beschreibt nicht nur einen Ort, sondern auch seine Menschen auf so einfühlsame und kraftvolle Weise, dass man sich als Leser wünscht, der Roman möge nach den fast vierhundert Seiten noch nicht enden…
Tallack beschreibt seine Charaktere meisterhaft und lässt sie menschlich und nahbar erscheinen. Ihr Leben, Denken und Handeln ist geprägt von Verlust und Schicksalsschlägen, von Familien- und Beziehungsproblemen, aber auch von der Tatsache, dass sie alle im Tal zusammenkommen, dass sich ihre Wege kreuzen, sie sich gegenseitig helfen und füreinander da sind.
Die Figuren sind die Mitte ihrer eigenen Welt und das Tal schließt sie ein, gibt ihnen einen sicheren Hafen. Es ist ein Mikrokosmos, eine abgeschlossene Welt, in der jeder einzelne zählt, in der alle etwas zu sagen haben. Jede einzelne Figur macht das Tal zu dem, was es ist und trägt mit ihrer Geschichte zu einem großen Ganzen bei.
Neben der Gemeinschaft ist auch die Körperlichkeit und Rauheit des Lebens und der Arbeit ein Thema, das den Roman auszeichnet. Schon gleich zu Beginn wird der Leser mit einer Schlachtszene konfrontiert und immer wieder ist die Arbeit mit und gegen die Natur in der Geschichte präsent, wenn zum Beispiel Gräben im Schlamm gegraben werden müssen, Zäune repariert werden oder Lämmer sterben. Es sind sicherlich auch diese Szenen, die dazu beitragen, dass der Roman oft wie aus der Zeit gegriffen zu sein scheint.
Der Autor lässt sich beim Erzählen seiner Geschichte Zeit und richtet sich nach dem Lebensrhythmus der Talbewohner. Es sind die leisen Töne, die die Geschichte auszeichnen. Sie bedarf keiner Spannung und keiner großen und unerwarteten Wendepunkte, um ihre Wirkung vollständig zu entfalten. Die Ruhe und die Langsamkeit, die sie ausstrahlt, harmonieren mit der Ursprünglichkeit der Landschaft, die in ihr beschrieben wird und mit der Einfachheit des Lebens im Tal.
Malachy Tallack hat ein wunderbares Buch über das Leben in einem Tal auf Shetland geschrieben, das von Gemeinschaft, von Wetter, Stürmen und dem Atlantik bestimmt wird. Er beschreibt nicht nur einen Ort, sondern auch seine Menschen auf so einfühlsame und kraftvolle Weise, dass man sich als Leser wünscht, der Roman möge nach den fast vierhundert Seiten noch nicht enden…
May 11, 2018
From BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime:
In a remote valley on the west coast of Shetland, Sandy takes his first tentative steps in crofting as his home life falls apart.
Read by Steven Robertson
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Malachy Tallack's debut novel is a quiet yet powerful study of contemporary rural Scotland that asks what remains when a way of life vanishes. Set on the rugged west coast of Shetland, in a community only ever a few steps away from extinction, Tallack's novel tackles big questions about land, inheritance and belonging without ever losing sight of the humanity and integrity of its characters.
Malachy Tallack is the author of two non-fiction titles which fused nature writing, history and memoir; Radio 4 Book of the Week 60 DEGREES NORTH and THE UN-DISCOVERED ISLANDS. Malachy won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014 and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is a singer-songwriter, author and journalist.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b0...
In a remote valley on the west coast of Shetland, Sandy takes his first tentative steps in crofting as his home life falls apart.
Read by Steven Robertson
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Malachy Tallack's debut novel is a quiet yet powerful study of contemporary rural Scotland that asks what remains when a way of life vanishes. Set on the rugged west coast of Shetland, in a community only ever a few steps away from extinction, Tallack's novel tackles big questions about land, inheritance and belonging without ever losing sight of the humanity and integrity of its characters.
Malachy Tallack is the author of two non-fiction titles which fused nature writing, history and memoir; Radio 4 Book of the Week 60 DEGREES NORTH and THE UN-DISCOVERED ISLANDS. Malachy won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014 and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is a singer-songwriter, author and journalist.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b0...
August 25, 2020
Maybe more about language and dialect than about anything eventful in the way of plot. A bit about the culture and lifestyle of the Scottish Isles and about the fractured relationship between a mom and her son. And anything that did occur almost seemed gratuitous so that something would be occurring in the novel. I’ve read a good bit about the region and by authors from the region, and this would not be one of my recommendations.
February 28, 2018
A remarkable debut. I became so invested in these characters lives and their profound connections to their place in the world. Beautiful prose from a major new talent.
May 4, 2018
Shetland has a bleak beauty about it, scoured by storms that roll in from the Atlantic, it shapes the landscape as much as it does the people that live there. For some islanders, it is the only place that they have known and they would never leave it, but the population in the scattering of houses in a valley is slowly ebbing away. David, a third generation crofter, live in one of the houses in the valley. It is a place that he would never leave; the island is as much a part of his DNA as the skills that he learnt at his father and grandfathers side and he takes every day as he finds it. Their daughter Emma was in the house next door, but she has headed south to Edinburgh, leaving her ex-partner, Sandy, learning the essential elements of crofting from David. Terry lives nearby, separated from his wife and son, he is seeking comfort in the bottle. Maggie, who is well in her eighties and the oldest resident of the valley, lives just up the road and there is Alice, formerly a bestselling writer and a newcomer to the island and the valley; she is there for the solitude and still bereft after losing her husband to cancer.
As much as things remain the same, there is change in the air. A property becomes available after a resident dies; Ryan and Jo, a young couple with their own difficulties move into the valley and change the dynamics of the relationships that had developed. At the centre of them all is David who takes everything in his stride with a calm and patient outlook.
If you are expecting a dynamic plot then this might not be for you; this is a book where you get to explore the way that characters change as the circumstances flow. There is plenty of tension in the book, some from the complex relationships of the small number of characters
and other tension reflecting how tough it can be to live there. Reading the accents of the locals does take a bit of getting used to, but it does give authenticity and atmosphere to the narrative. The other star of the book is the place. Tallack's prose through the book that Alice has begun to write as she emerges from grief describes the land and seascape of the island and the life that survives and thrive there. I think his non-fiction just has the edge for me, 60 degrees north is an excellent travel book, and I would urge you to read it. However, this proves that he is capable of much more as a writer, and I think can sit happily alongside his contemporaries like Melissa Harrison who write fiction with strong natural history undertones. Looking forward to the next book he writes now.
As much as things remain the same, there is change in the air. A property becomes available after a resident dies; Ryan and Jo, a young couple with their own difficulties move into the valley and change the dynamics of the relationships that had developed. At the centre of them all is David who takes everything in his stride with a calm and patient outlook.
If you are expecting a dynamic plot then this might not be for you; this is a book where you get to explore the way that characters change as the circumstances flow. There is plenty of tension in the book, some from the complex relationships of the small number of characters
and other tension reflecting how tough it can be to live there. Reading the accents of the locals does take a bit of getting used to, but it does give authenticity and atmosphere to the narrative. The other star of the book is the place. Tallack's prose through the book that Alice has begun to write as she emerges from grief describes the land and seascape of the island and the life that survives and thrive there. I think his non-fiction just has the edge for me, 60 degrees north is an excellent travel book, and I would urge you to read it. However, this proves that he is capable of much more as a writer, and I think can sit happily alongside his contemporaries like Melissa Harrison who write fiction with strong natural history undertones. Looking forward to the next book he writes now.
July 13, 2018
At the age of ten, Malachy Tallack moved to Shetland with his family. Now an award-winning singer-songwriter, journalist and author, he has written extensively about life in these remote islands. Tallack has also published two travel books : Sixty Degrees North: Around the World in Search of Home, an exploration of lands along the sixtieth parallel (which also crosses through the Shetland Isles) and The Un-Discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes, about mythical islands once believed to be real. Valley at the Centre of the World is his first novel. Set in Shetland, it is a work of fiction but one shaped by the reality that Tallack knows so well.
Tallack emphasizes the sense of isolation by making his setting doubly insular – his protagonists are not only islanders, but the inhabitants of a valley distant from the comparative bustle of Lerwick. There’s old crofter David and his wife Mary. There’s Sandy – their daughter Emma’s ex-partner – who has stayed on in Shetland even as Emma has gone south to mainland Scotland. There’s crime-writer Alice, who has retired to this distant part of the world after prematurely losing her husband to cancer. There’s Ryan and Jo, a young couple who move in as tenants in one of the cottages owned by David. There’s Terry, battling the demons of alcoholism and family breakdown. And then there’s the memory of Maggie, once the valley’s oldest inhabitant, still inspiring affection and respect from beyond the grave.
In its portrayal of an isolated community and its handling of themes of identity and belonging, Valley at the Centre of the World reminded me of another novel I read recently – Ray Jacobsen’s The Unseen which is set in a remote Norwegian island. There is also a similarity in the approach to dialogue, the thick dialect of the Shetland Isles (David’s in particular) rendered phonetically to give readers a feel for its sound. Yet the novels are also very different. Jacobsen’s is more overtly (self-consciously?) literary in style, its purposely vague temporal setting giving the novel a timeless, fable-like feel. On the other hand, Tallack strives for authenticity, to the point of having one of his characters (Alice) work on a history of the valley – a convenient way of putting across information about the island without appearing artificial or pedantic.
Tallack’s novel is also clearly rooted in the present and expresses the challenges faced by young (and not-so-young) people who take the plunge and make a distant island the centre of their world. Indeed, the same care taken in the portrayal of the natural setting is dedicated to the development of character – we are given enough of the protagonists’ backstory to turn them into flesh-and-blood figures. And this is one of the book’s strong points – although it is a novel in which not much happens by way of plot, the dynamics between the different characters are strangely beguiling and by the end of the book, the protagonists feel like old friends.
Tallack emphasizes the sense of isolation by making his setting doubly insular – his protagonists are not only islanders, but the inhabitants of a valley distant from the comparative bustle of Lerwick. There’s old crofter David and his wife Mary. There’s Sandy – their daughter Emma’s ex-partner – who has stayed on in Shetland even as Emma has gone south to mainland Scotland. There’s crime-writer Alice, who has retired to this distant part of the world after prematurely losing her husband to cancer. There’s Ryan and Jo, a young couple who move in as tenants in one of the cottages owned by David. There’s Terry, battling the demons of alcoholism and family breakdown. And then there’s the memory of Maggie, once the valley’s oldest inhabitant, still inspiring affection and respect from beyond the grave.
In its portrayal of an isolated community and its handling of themes of identity and belonging, Valley at the Centre of the World reminded me of another novel I read recently – Ray Jacobsen’s The Unseen which is set in a remote Norwegian island. There is also a similarity in the approach to dialogue, the thick dialect of the Shetland Isles (David’s in particular) rendered phonetically to give readers a feel for its sound. Yet the novels are also very different. Jacobsen’s is more overtly (self-consciously?) literary in style, its purposely vague temporal setting giving the novel a timeless, fable-like feel. On the other hand, Tallack strives for authenticity, to the point of having one of his characters (Alice) work on a history of the valley – a convenient way of putting across information about the island without appearing artificial or pedantic.
Tallack’s novel is also clearly rooted in the present and expresses the challenges faced by young (and not-so-young) people who take the plunge and make a distant island the centre of their world. Indeed, the same care taken in the portrayal of the natural setting is dedicated to the development of character – we are given enough of the protagonists’ backstory to turn them into flesh-and-blood figures. And this is one of the book’s strong points – although it is a novel in which not much happens by way of plot, the dynamics between the different characters are strangely beguiling and by the end of the book, the protagonists feel like old friends.
March 5, 2024
The Valley at the Centre of the World is a quiet, introspective novel about the lives of the inhabitants of a very small valley in Shetland. And I thought it was beautiful. This won't be for everyone, but I loved it.
Four things I liked:
+ The SETTING! Probably an obvious one, but it definitely deserves to be mentioned first. The valley felt so real to me. It was rugged and weather-worn and authentic, and I could smell the dirt and feel the wind on my face. It was so wonderfully described. And I would be lying if I said I haven't looked up plane tickets to Shetland. (Turns out there are direct flights between here and Shetland which I was not expecting? I don't think I'll have time to go anywhere this summer, but it's tempting...)
+ The writing in this was perfect. It was just what I wanted from it, not too much purple prose, but just a nice flow of words that made me feel perfectly enthralled with the story and the setting.
+ The dialogue in this book is written in "dialect", or Shetlandic/Shaetlan as it is called. I read a couple of reviews who mentioned that it was difficult to read, but I have to disagree. As long as you don't just read the words on the page but actually sound them out in your head, it's perfectly readable. I think it added to the authenticity of the book. If the characters who had lived in a valley in Shetland their whole life spoke "regular" stiff english, they wouldn't be as real as I thought they were.
+ How homey it felt. Like that could be my home, your home, all of our homes.
One thing I didn't like:
- There were two characters, Jo and Ryan, that didn't really do anything for me. And other than that I loved the characters, especially Sandy and his bond with Mary and David (I swear to god the last few pages made me cry), but honestly, I also loved Terry, and even Alice. But Ryan and Jo were just there.
Four things I liked:
+ The SETTING! Probably an obvious one, but it definitely deserves to be mentioned first. The valley felt so real to me. It was rugged and weather-worn and authentic, and I could smell the dirt and feel the wind on my face. It was so wonderfully described. And I would be lying if I said I haven't looked up plane tickets to Shetland. (Turns out there are direct flights between here and Shetland which I was not expecting? I don't think I'll have time to go anywhere this summer, but it's tempting...)
+ The writing in this was perfect. It was just what I wanted from it, not too much purple prose, but just a nice flow of words that made me feel perfectly enthralled with the story and the setting.
+ The dialogue in this book is written in "dialect", or Shetlandic/Shaetlan as it is called. I read a couple of reviews who mentioned that it was difficult to read, but I have to disagree. As long as you don't just read the words on the page but actually sound them out in your head, it's perfectly readable. I think it added to the authenticity of the book. If the characters who had lived in a valley in Shetland their whole life spoke "regular" stiff english, they wouldn't be as real as I thought they were.
+ How homey it felt. Like that could be my home, your home, all of our homes.
One thing I didn't like:
- There were two characters, Jo and Ryan, that didn't really do anything for me. And other than that I loved the characters, especially Sandy and his bond with Mary and David (I swear to god the last few pages made me cry), but honestly, I also loved Terry, and even Alice. But Ryan and Jo were just there.
August 30, 2022
Im afraid this did not work for me. It was full of potential and had the interesting topics of the yearning for nothing to change whilst at the same time appreciating aspects of the modern world, and of living in traditional ways in a small community whilst the world and its values change. The story went nowhere, and I appreciate as this is about a tiny remote community of half a dozen houses that was the authors point, but I found it mostly rather dull. There were passages of lovely prose, but spoilt by the authors tendency to explain rather than show. I note he is mostly known as a non-fiction writer and perhaps this is why. I did get to the end, hopeful of finding something better, but it never arrived.
May 18, 2018
This was such a brilliantly told story of the entwined lives of a group of people in a small valley on the Shetland Islands. Having just returned from the islands - I may be biased as to the amazingness of how well the author doesn't just take you to the valley, but you feel the dirt and salt air, you hear the sounds and dialect and you can sense the layers of story and meaning that is laid down in the physical earth. Each of the characters was drawn so well, it created the sense that you knew and understood them as people really deeply, in a way I've not been effected by for a long time. After reading this, I'm desperate to go back north.
June 2, 2025
Simple, detailed and beautiful. A story about belonging somewhere and finding community, whilst raising the heartbreaking question: what happens to these small worlds once everyone has gone?
September 1, 2024
Ein atmosphärisches, ruhiges Buch, welches die kleine Gesellschaft in einem Tal in Shetland beleuchtet. Es lässt sich sehr gut lesen und hat einige gute Momente, verbleibt am Ende aber leider doch irgendwie blass und austauschbar.
August 7, 2018
This was a Guardian Longlist NTB nomination and appealed to me chiefly due to the setting of the Shetland Islands. The story is a slice of Shetland life, more specifically in a farming valley of two or three houses. As an insight into the way of life it works well, but it is not plot driven, and I expect rather like the islands, has a slow pace to it.
Msg of the dialogue is written with the Shetland dialect or accent. Though there is a translation of key words given at the start of the novel, it’s never easy to follow.
Many will appreciate the window into rural Shetland life, but I didn’t find enough going on to hold my interest.
Msg of the dialogue is written with the Shetland dialect or accent. Though there is a translation of key words given at the start of the novel, it’s never easy to follow.
Many will appreciate the window into rural Shetland life, but I didn’t find enough going on to hold my interest.
October 22, 2018
Shetland is a place of sheep, soil, harsh weather, close ties and an age-old wary life. It is a place in which David has lived all of his life and a place where Sandy and Alice may have found a home. The story tells the transition for a small valley in Shetland, as the death of the oldest inhabitant Maggie, causes the others to worry what the future may hold with few young members of the community.
I really enjoyed the depth of the description of the setting, with such beautiful scenery it made me feel as though I was there in the remote valley as I read the novel. The use of the Shetland dialect enhanced this and really brought the natural characters to life. However, I did find the glossary useful at points!
My only criticism is that there was little action in the book as it just considers people’s day-to-day lives. This makes an interesting and realistic story, but for me, it wasn’t overly engaging.
Lucy
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
I really enjoyed the depth of the description of the setting, with such beautiful scenery it made me feel as though I was there in the remote valley as I read the novel. The use of the Shetland dialect enhanced this and really brought the natural characters to life. However, I did find the glossary useful at points!
My only criticism is that there was little action in the book as it just considers people’s day-to-day lives. This makes an interesting and realistic story, but for me, it wasn’t overly engaging.
Lucy
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
April 2, 2020
“She was just there, living, being the things that she did.” The Valley at the Centre of the World is such a cosy and heart-warming book - the perfect escape from the craziness of the world at the moment. Tallack did a brilliant job at wrapping me up in the Scottish islands, with characters that I didn’t realise I would miss, until I turned the last page. He so gently captured the beauty of the everyday, the humble meanderings of his country folk, the sweet and quiet breeze of the valley. I could hear the Scottish accent, and taste the crisp green in the air. All of which he remarks (in a seeming meta-narrative) that his character Alice, an author, is struggling to conceive in her own writing of the valley. Through Alice, Tallack makes known that the valley cannot be understood in an academic sense, it simply must be felt. Overall, this is a beautiful book that I am sure I will to return to for solace when the outside world gets too loud.
January 26, 2019
Really a lovely novel. Tallack writes his characters and this setting with a tenderness and respect I wasn’t expecting to gut me emotionally but it did. I haven’t read his nonfiction books yet, but I’ll certainly add them to my list.
January 10, 2020
A well written and intelligent novel dishing up a huge slice of Shetland life. In ‘the valley’ nothing changes, yet everything does. Time stands still for no place or community and these remote islands are no different. The valley is a microcosm of island communities in Scotland and beyond.
July 4, 2018
Beautifully written, honest and realistic portrayal of lives both simplistic and complex. Reading it life enhancing. Loved it.
October 13, 2020
Quietly, beautifully melancholy novel that takes you through a year in the life of a Shetland community.
July 3, 2021
Ich habs vermutlich nicht verstanden
January 2, 2022
Cute and simple story of a small community. You get a feeling that it will be some kind of mystery at the start but there really isn't anything there. Just character exploration and interaction.
September 27, 2023
This is such a quiet book but the embers burning underneath each character finally do burst into flames.
April 30, 2018
Favorite excerpt: "The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time … It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on."
May 12, 2018
Just listened to and in this case my best books of the year so far. The first minister mentioned she was reading this book set in Shetland. I don’t normally read on recommendations from politicians but the author’s name rang a bell and the setting was Shetland. So I bought the book.
And it was so worth it. I have met the author at a Mainstreet Trading event for his non fiction and I do remember him being asked if he would writer fiction. From memory he said he would need to find a story seems that he has.
This is a beautiful gentle story set solely in a valley in Shetland with minimal characters. I just loved it for the prose, the setting and the characters. It’s not complex but it’s so intelligent in its simplicity.
And it was so worth it. I have met the author at a Mainstreet Trading event for his non fiction and I do remember him being asked if he would writer fiction. From memory he said he would need to find a story seems that he has.
This is a beautiful gentle story set solely in a valley in Shetland with minimal characters. I just loved it for the prose, the setting and the characters. It’s not complex but it’s so intelligent in its simplicity.
August 1, 2022
Very enjoyable, especially as an audio book
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