Malachy Tallack

Malachy Tallack on That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz.

We are delighted to welcome back Malachy Tallack, one of Scotland's most exciting multi-genre writers, to discuss his new Shetland-based novel That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz. He last visited the bookshop to celebrate his beautiful fishing memoir Illuminated by Water.

1957. Sonny is working on a whaling ship in the South Atlantic, reckoning with the most vicious storms he has ever seen. It's a brutal way to make a living. When he finally returns to his Shetland home to build a life with his wife and young son, the legacy of his time at sea is felt by all of them.

In present day Shetland, Jack is an old man, living alone in the cottage where he grew up, in the shadow of a hill. And it is here, one evening, that something appears on his doorstep. Something that throws off the rhythm of his solitary existence in the most profound way.

This is a story of unlikely friendship, longing, the power of music and the pull of home. It is about a life revisited - and reimagined.

Malachy Tallack is one of the most exciting and critically acclaimed writers to emerge from Scotland in the past decade, and has won praise from Robert Macfarlane, Bernard MacLaverty, Sara Baume, Madeleine Bunting, Will Self and John Burnside, among others. He was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award for 60 Degrees North; The Un-Discovered Islands was named Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2016; and The Valley at the Centre of the World was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.