The Island House

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From the internationally bestselling author of
The Dressmaker
comes an unforgettable novel about a young archaeologist who unearths ancient secrets, a tragic romance, and Viking treasure on a remote Scottish island.

One warm, rainy summer, Freya Dane, a PhD candidate in archaeology, arrives on the ancient Scottish island of Findnar. Estranged as a child from her recently dead father, himself an archaeologist, Freya yearns to understand more about the man, his work on the island, and why he left her mother so many years ago. It seems Michael Dane uncovered much of Findnar’s Viking and Christian past through his search for an illusive tomb, and Freya continues his work. The discoveries she is destined to make, far greater than her father’s, will teach her the true meaning of love and of loss.

AD 800, and a wandering comet, an omen of evil, shines down on Findnar. The fears of the locals are justified. In a Viking raid, Signy, a Pictish girl, loses her entire family. Taken in by survivors of the island’s Christian community, she falls in love with an injured Viking youth left behind by the raiders and is cast out. Confused and bereft, eventually she becomes a nun, a decision that will unleash tragedy as she is plunged into the heart of a war between three religions. Forced to choose among her ancestors’ animist beliefs, her adopted faith, and the man she loves, Signy will call out to Freya across the centuries. Ancient wrongs must be laid to rest in the present and the mystery at the heart of Findnar’s violent past exposed.

In time the comet will return, a link between past and present. But for these two women, time does not exist. For them, the past will never die. It has waited for them both.

POSIE GRAEME-EVANS is the author of four previous novels, including her most recent,
The Dressmaker.
She has worked in the Australian media industry for the last thirty years and was named one of
Variety
magazine’s twenty significant women in film and television. She lives in Tasmania with her husband and creative partner, Andrew Blaxland. Find out more at
www.posiegraemeevans.com
.

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COVER ILLUSTRATION BY TOM HALLMAN; AUTHOR IMAGE BY MARK MAWSON

The
Island House

A
LSO BY
P
OSIE
G
RAEME
-E
VANS

The Dressmaker

The Innocent

The Exiled

The Uncrowned Queen

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Millennium Pictures Pty. Limited and Posie Graeme-Evans

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Paperback edition June 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Graeme-Evans, Posie.

The island house : a novel / by Posie Graeme-Evans. —1st Atria paperback ed.
   p. cm.