The Repentants

About this book

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

St Monans, Fife, 1790. Two women are forced to repent publicly in church, one for adultery, the other for breaching the sabbath. Wealthy housewife Florrie and salt serf Eliza form a quick, unlikely bond in the wake of their shared humiliation. When Florrie’s husband insists she accompany him on a trade venture to Iceland, she demands Eliza come too, as her maid.

Far from home, isolated and fearful, the two women grow closer. Then Florrie’s husband reveals his plan. He intends to leave her in Iceland, banished for the shame he believes she has brought upon him. Escape becomes urgent, and Florrie turns to Eliza for help, only to realise that nothing is quite as it seems.

Inspired by an attempt by Scottish merchants to annex Iceland as a remote prison for the British Empire, The Repentants follows betrayal, exile and survival in a world where a woman’s reputation can be used as a sentence.