Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Ocean All Around

Norwegian title: Hav på alle kanter

Ocean All Around erases all national borders, and draws a living portrait of the North Atlantic ocean; the historical, cultural and genetical melting pot that shares a Norse and Celtic heritage. The reader gets up close and personal with the island people and their traditions, myths and histories, triumphs and tragedies which show how nature and ocean has shaped – and still shapes – life on the islands.

For as long as people have inhabited the North Atlantic coast, they have shared the deeply human urge to explore the unknown. Humans should perhaps have been born with gills and webbed feet, because as soon as given the chance, they would sail out to sea, risking their lives. Before the current maps and borders were drawn, people would go island hopping between Norway and Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the Faroes and Iceland without having to think of passports and custom controls. They braved the waves in log boats, light currachs, clinker-built ships, fishing boats and schooners. They traded with each other and married each other, inspired each other or repressed each other.

Islands are communities in miniature. When you’re surrounded by ocean as far as the eye can see, islanders are in the same boat, so to speak. They all depend on each other. To live on an island can be claustrophobic, romantic, windy, grim, lonely, frustrating, peaceful – but never boring.

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