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The Shapeshifter's Daughter
- Author
- Sally Magnusson
- Narrator
- Karen Traynor
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Publish Date
- 6 November 2025
- Run Time
- 7 hours 48 minutes
- Format
- x-book®
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What to expect
***LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE***
'Perfect to read whilst curled up by the fire demanding people bring you hot tea and biscuits to dunk' Sara Cox, Radio 2 Book Club
'One of the most imaginative and ambitious books I have read all year' Scotsman
'Magical in every sense' Saga Magazine
'A heart-rending opus on love, death and change' Herald
Nothing, on earth or below it, freezes faster than the worthless heart.
Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel's fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed. Half beauty, half crone, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death's travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home.
Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Helen Firth makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands: to die.
As Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she believes herself to be isn't who she really is.
A powerful reimagining of the Norse myth of Hel, The Shapeshifter's Daughter celebrates the joy of reclaiming our stories.
Critics Review
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Magnusson is superb at evoking a landscape rich in history and prehistory, although the novel's greatest strength is her feminist interpretation of Norse mythology in a story that centres equally on Hel and Helen, both of whom are daughters wounded by "fathers whom they still, in the last winter of their own lives, struggles to forgive".
Irish Times
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Burdened with a grim prognosis, librarian Helen Firth returns to live her last days in her native OrkneySteeped in folklore, home to stone circles, selkies and sea sorcerers, it provides the backdrop for a stirring novel about finding love in the darkest hour, as the gods of Norse Myth, Odin, Thor and a surprisingly endearing Hel loom up in the narrative. Magical in every sense.
Saga Magazine
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A heart-rending opus on love, death and change . . . captivatingly written, Magnusson has grand ambitions, mashing together a tragic romance, a god's exploration of what it means to be human and a cosmic scheme to outwit the mighty Odin, but by interlacing her plotlines with threads of healing, reconciliation and taking control of one's destiny she's fashioned it into a powerful emotional journey.
Herald
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One of the most imaginative and ambitious books I have read all year... gives the Norse myths a feminist tweak somewhat akin to Madeleine Miller and Pat Barker's reimagining of the Odyssey
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An exciting read for anyone interested in Norse mythology and drawn to the fantastical. Magnusson should be praised for her exquisite world-building
Irish Examiner
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Sally Magnusson
- Narrator
- Karen Traynor
- Duration
- 7 hours 48 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781399825245
- Format
- x-book®
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Modern and Contemporary romance
Synopsis
***A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 2025******LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE***'Perfect to read whilst curled up by the fire demanding people bring you hot tea and biscuits to dunk' Sara Cox, Radio 2 Book Club'One of the most imaginative and ambitious books I have read all year' Scotsman'Magical in every sense' Saga Magazine'A heart-rending opus on love, death and change' HeraldNothing, on earth or below it, freezes faster than the worthless heart.Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel's fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed. Half beauty, half crone, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death's travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home. Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Helen Firth makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands: to die. As Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she believes herself to be isn't who she really is.A powerful reimagining of the Norse myth of Hel, The Shapeshifter's Daughter celebrates the joy of reclaiming our stories.
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