The Celtic Ring by Bjorn Larsson
First published in Sweden, Bjor Larsson's thriller became a bestseller in Europe.A Swedish yacht owner stumbles into a Celtic plot for worldwide self-sovereignty in The Celtic Ring, a craggy, atmospheric thriller by Swedish writer and sailor Bjorn Larsson. After a meeting with an excitable Scotsman, Ulf, a solitary middle-aged man living on board his yacht, the RUSTICA, embarks on an adventure that takes him on a wild winter sail across the North Sea. Though a bit sluggish in the water, Larsson's novel is thoroughly steeped in seafaring lore, and will be of particular interest to sailors and Celtic history buffs. Trans. from the Swedish by George Simpson. * Publishers Weekly *
A dark thriller of modern day Druids, gruesome Celtic rituals, arms smuggling and nail-biting sailing in some of the most dangerous waters in the world. The story, which is concerned mainly with efforts to maintain independence for the Celtic followers of Brittany, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, takes us on a quest across the North Sea in a 31-ft yacht in the middle of the winter! The reader is kept avidly turning pages to discover what lies behind the attempts on the lives of the two intrepid Swedish sailors who have unwittingly found themselves involved in a series of bizarre events. The book has won critical acclaim in Europe and I can understand why. Apart from providing a riveting tale, I learned much about the ancient and enigmatic Celts and their strange beliefs, some of which endure to the present day. * Sailing *
Bjorn Larsson was born in central Sweden in 1953 and was immediately smitten by an unquenchable desire to travel. He attended high school in Arizona for a year when he was fifteen years old. I just returned to Sweden to pass my exams, receive my study loans, and go to prison, as he puts it himself. Bjorn Larsson has written a number of scholarly and technical books, ranging from a treatise on the usage of French adjectives to a deep-sea diving instruction manual, but he has recently found success as a novelist, and he may soon have to decide whether to quit his day job and devote himself full-time to his boat and writing. Splitter (Splinters, 1980) was his debut literary work, a collection of short stories.
But it was with The Celtic Ring, a novel whose main character Larsson claims is his yacht Rustica, that he made his mark in 1992. It's all at good fun, although the story is mostly set in Scotland and Ireland, where he and Helle spent a year on board Rustica (wintering in Kinsale) before sailing to Brittany, the Bay of Biscay, and Galicia. The ambition of the Celtic nations to break away from England and form their own federation is a major theme in the book. It's worth noting that Larsson began writing the novel before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the devolution of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
He seemed to have foreseen a trend that swept across Europe; yet, as he points out, it is our good fortune that the process has gone more smoothly in northern Europe than in Yugoslavia. That was not clear when The Celtic Ring was written in 1991. Long John Silver (1995), Bjorn Larsson's second novel, was likewise about freedom and the sailing life.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781574091144 |
| ISBN 10 | 157409114X |
| Title | The Celtic Ring |
| Author | Bjorn Larsson |
| Series | Mariners Library Fiction Classic |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
| Year published | 2000-10-01 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |