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Home > Historical Fiction > The Cromarty Library Circle: From the author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes an atmospheric and immersive historical novel
The Cromarty Library Circle: From the author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes an atmospheric and immersive historical novel

The Cromarty Library Circle: From the author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes an atmospheric and immersive historical novel


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About the Book

From the bestselling author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes the unforgettable story of a Scottish town on the cusp of change and the group of townspeople whose lives will be irrevocably altered over the course of one tumultuous year.

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'Rich, insightful . . . [an] impressive novel' Sunday Times

'Shona MacLean's novels are smart, soulful and deeply engrossing. An exceptional, wise and compassionate storyteller, she can make any 'historical period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson

'Superbly researched, entirely convincing, very clever and at times unbearably poignant. I loved it.' Andrew Taylor

'Riveting' Daily Mail

Cromarty, The Black Isle, 1831.

As seagulls shriek and rise on the coastal winds, a circulating library in the bustling port town of Cromarty is meeting for the first time.

Ostensibly united by a love of books, the demands of social convention have brought together a disparate group of people. Charlotte Mackenzie, the remote and fragile wife of the local laird, seeks an escape from a loveless marriage; her best friend, Rachel Mackay, a former governess who is ardently in love with her own older husband, the town's minister; the young schoolmaster, John Learmonth, newly arrived from Edinburgh with secrets in tow; and the gentle bank clerk, Ludovic Cameron who dreams of a new life across the ocean, far from his erstwhile schoolmate, the malevolent Farquhar Hossack. When the laird befriends a wounded officer, a chain of events is set into motion that threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium of the community.

Against the backdrop of mass emigrations, an encroaching cholera epidemic, political unrest and the campaign to abolish chattel slavery in the British Caribbean, the people of Cromarty must negotiate their new world and each other, flitting in and out of each other's lives through one extraordinary year.

The Cromarty Library Circle is a richly woven and immersive portrait of connected lives, changing fortunes and the often-unseen forces that shape our destinies.

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Praise for Shona MacLean

'MacLean can make any period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson

'An excellent work of historical fiction' Literary Review

'A wonderful storyteller' The Times

'Well-researched and fascinating' Guardian



About the Author :
S. G. MacLean (Shona) has a PhD in History from the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of two historical crime series - the Alexander Seaton series, set in seventeenth century Scotland and the Damian Seeker series, set in Oliver Cromwell's London, for which she has twice won the CWA Historical Dagger. Her standalone Jacobite thriller, The Bookseller of Inverness, was Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2023. Shona lives in Conon Bridge, Scotland.

Review :
A riveting portrait of a small community slowly transforming as the wider world begins to upend its old ways Credible and immersive An unforgettable story '[A] rich, insightful portrait of a community . . . MacLean's impressive novel reveals lives changed and challenged by larger historical forces that her characters do not fully understand' Beautifully written and wonderfully evocative, but also tangentially tackles some really meaty subjects - slavery, grave robbery, cholera, political unrest, emigration - although, as ever, MacLean wears her learning lightly.


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Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9781529445527
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing
  • Publisher Imprint: Quercus Publishing
  • Edition: Unabridged edition
  • Returnable: N
  • Sub Title: From the author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes an atmospheric and immersive historical novel
  • ISBN-10: 1529445523
  • Publisher Date: 26 Feb 2026
  • Binding: Downloadable audio file
  • Language: English
  • Returnable: N


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