Sixty Degrees North

Sixty Degrees North—Around the World in Search of Home

A journey around the world along a single line of latitude—and a deeply personal search for home after loss.

About the Ebook

'Sixty Degrees North is a story that we tell, both to ourselves and to others. It is a story about where - and perhaps also who - we are.' The sixtieth parallel marks a kind of borderland. It wraps itself around the lower reaches of Finland, Sweden and Norway; it crosses the tip of Greenland and of South-central Alaska; it cuts the great spaces of Russia and Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetland, at the very top of the British Isles. In Sixty Degrees North, Malachy Tallack explores the places that share this latitude, beginning and ending in Shetland, where he has spent most of his life.

The book focuses on the landscapes and natural environments of the parallel, and the way that people have interacted with those landscapes. It explores themes of wildness and community, of isolation and engagement, of exile and memory.In addition, Sixty Degrees North is also a deeply personal book, which begins with the author's loss of his father and his troubled relationship with Shetland. Informed by the journeys described, it moves towards a kind of resolution: an acceptance of loss, and ultimately a love of the place Tallack calls 'home'.

Why You'll Love This Ebook

• A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
• Traces the sixtieth parallel through Shetland, Scandinavia, Russia, Canada and Alaska
• A meditation on wildness, isolation, exile and ultimately belonging
• Read another celebrated title from Polygon - an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

Reviews

'Malachy is a fine, sensitive writer with an eye for detail and a talent for descriptive prose.' Herald

'It's a joy to read, its prose as clear as the light on the Greenland ice-cap.' Guardian

About the Author

Malachy Tallack has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, the Scottish Review of Books, Caught By the River and many other publications, online and in print. He won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014, and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is from Shetland, and currently lives in Glasgow.

Publication Details

Publisher: Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd)

Publication Date: 01 July 2015

Print Length: 256 pages (Ebook edition)

ISBN (Ebook): 9780857908780

Format: Ebook

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