The Last Witch of Scotland – Scottish book of the year 2024

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

In the northern Highlands of 1727, Aila’s life is already shaped by loss. A fire has taken her father and left her scarred, her body marked in ways the world refuses to ignore. When she and her mother Janet settle in the remote parish of Loth, isolation deepens. Janet’s grief frays her sense of reality, and Aila learns quickly that difference is rarely forgiven in a tight, fearful community.

Suspicion sharpens with the arrival of a new minister, whose interest in the women feels less like concern and more like threat. Relief comes briefly with a travelling troupe from Edinburgh, whose music and warmth offer Aila a glimpse of connection and possibility. For the first time since the fire, she feels herself drawn back toward life.

But joy is fragile here. Belief outweighs truth, and whispers travel faster than kindness. In The Last Witch of Scotland, history presses close and unforgiving, capturing a moment when fear dressed itself as faith. It is a quietly devastating novel about survival, otherness, and how easily a woman can be condemned when a community decides she does not belong.