The Book Keep

Title: The Mermaid and the Bear
Author: Ailish Sinclair
Publisher: GWL Publishing
Year: 2019
Pages: 240

Cover design and artwork by: GWL Creative
(via Ailish Sinclair)

Summary

In the refuge of the enchanting Scottish countryside, full of magic pools, fairy circles, and grand castles, Isobell has escaped marriage to a fearsome suitor. But while she meets many warm and accepting allies, there is also an equal share of enemies—those who look severely upon a young woman refusing male authority and those who fester with jealousy when she unwittingly captures a more noble man’s affections. Set in late-sixteenth-century Scotland, Isobell is soon left at the mercy of witchcraft accusations and thereby comes to witness both the best and worst sides of humanity.

Review

Not only a tribute to Scotland and its history, Ailish Sinclair’s debut novel, The Mermaid and the Bear, further excites, warms, and grips us with a tale about the dichotomies of human nature.

First and foremost, this is achieved by an entrancing blend of evocative literary styles. With mention of witchcraft and the imagery of misty woodlands and a gray, imposing church steeple, Mermaid’s mood is reminiscent of a classic Gothic novel; and yet, here and there, soaked in the colors of bright holiday feasts, pristine snowy landscapes, and a pink stone castle, the air of a Medieval fairytale shimmers with a dreamlike quality. Equally compelling are the characters, from Agnes’ guile to the Laird’s solemn tenderness, and transcription of their Scottish accents is a celebration of dialect, adding personality to the dialogue that could not be otherwise accomplished with mere description. Humor even makes the occasional and welcome appearance through Jasper and Isobell’s sibling banter as well as Bessie’s playful straightforwardness.

These humorous moments are part of the framework for the more lighthearted themes, such as beauty, love, and family. However, Sinclair layers her thematic considerations in successive depth. Courage, grief, and self-determination, for example, hold firm—and often altogether—across the female characters’ narrative arcs; meanwhile, the story takes a darker turn with the introduction of subjects including corruption, trauma, and intolerance. The through line among these layers is grounded in the maternal and platonic relationships between Isobell, Bessie, and Christen Michell, tracing its circuitous path through love, self-determination, and trauma, as the particular examination of women’s experiences is most thoughtfully facilitated by the novel’s structure.

Divided into two parts, they at first appear to tell very different stories. Part one develops more slowly with an anecdotal focus on characterizing Mermaid’s principal actors; part two is more action-driven, holding us in the suspense of a very serious conflict. By the novel’s resolution, however, the impact of their unity is clear: the first part lays the necessary groundwork—sets the stakes—for readers to perceive the real risks, consequences, and emotional upheaval of the second part. Furthermore, by linking characters’ relationships and motivations to their believable historical circumstances (something uniquely enhanced by the book’s concluding historical notes), the faces of genuine evil and genuine love are able to be painted in stark contrast—something which Sinclair not only manages to show her readers but, more importantly, make them feel.

A lasting impression is one of the most poignant influences an author can impart on their reader. To encapsulate their entire book in a single line that, no less, speaks to a universal truth about the power of language is even more remarkable. Thus, with historical context, themes, composition, and characters in so apparent, intentional alignment, there is perhaps no better way to conclude this review than with Sinclair’s own wisdom, invoked by Isobell amid the hardships of persecution: “remind me to only ever speak words that had been thought through, words of love and kindness that could do no harm to any person, no matter what wickedness they had done.”