The Holy Place of Tides

James Rebanks is a British farmer who works land owned by his family for 600 years. He is also a celebrated author including two bestsellers about the farming life and his desire to restore his farm to a more sustainable scale and environmentally sensible model despite relentless pressure in other directions. 

I was intrigued to hear that he'd written a new book about his ten-week experience on a tiny Norwegian island working with an aging woman named Anna who tended to eider ducks and harvested their precious down. This seemed entirely out of character yet upon reading the book I realized that this is a sort of farming, although more of a symbiotic relationship akin to keeping bees. The creatures are wild yet flourish with the support of humans. Creating seasonal habitat for eider ducks to nest and leave their down behind is literally a dying craft as those who understand it age out. 

Rebanks had spent time briefly on the isolated Vega Achipelago years before in another work situation and while there met a "duck woman", the taciturn Anna. Years later when he was overwhelmed by the demands of the farm, family, and fame he realized that he needed a reset, a sabbatical, and his loving wife understood. He found his way back to Anna and her friend Ingrid who were the skilled duck women with whom he would toil for several months. Despite their initial skepticism about his usefullness they developed a remarkable relationship based on hard work, a growing trust, Rebanks' willingness to be a humble apprentice, and a love for the sea he didn't know was within him. 

James realized that his life had become almost manic, a sickness from which he needed to recover. He learned to see, hear, smell, touch and taste the world again on a journey back to the person he had once been. And as the time together drew to a close he sensed he had been "born again" to use his phrase and that forgiveness of others and self was vital to health and wholeness.On a tiny island the movement of the tides had invited him to breathe in and out. 

While this is in no direct way a religious book there was a spiritual essence to it that I found moving and I enjoyed the moments of humour along the way.