Threats of violence and societal constraints loom over women of three different eras in a remote Scotland locale in this haunting, powerful novel.
Viv takes up residence in a house where she was cataloging the belongings in preparation for its sale. Still drifting after the death of her father, she makes two new acquaintances while grocery shopping to whom she becomes strangely attached. Two generations earlier, in the aftermath of World War II and still mourning the loss of her brother, Ruth moves into the house with her new husband and stepsons. Away from her family and with her husband often gone for work, she struggles to find her way in her new community and forms a bond with her maid. Centuries earlier, Sarah, an accused witch, is on the run with a small group.
In The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld (All the Birds, Singing), women through the ages survive the impressive entitlement of the men in their lives and struggle with both mental health problems and societies that pathologize (or, in the case of Sarah, demonize) their choices and needs that do not fit into the accepted models of femininity. Sarah's sections feel more remote than the others, but readers spend the least time with her. In the Viv and Ruth sections, which make up the majority of the book, their anger, their fear and their stifling frustrations are palpable, but the bonds that sustain them affirm that carrying on is, after all, worth it. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library