When a fleet of one hundred English ships is caught in a horrible storm off the cold coasts of fifteenth-century Iceland, twenty-five ships are lost. For Ragna, the daughter of a respected family and betrothed to Thorkell, her relationship with one of the seamen washed ashore results in pregnancy. Now barren due to a traumatic childbirth and stigmatized as a fallen woman, she is left with no prospects for marriage when the betrothal is ultimately canceled.

A decade later, Ragna becomes a housekeeper to the new English bishop in North Iceland, where passionate and ambitious Thorkell is a priest and steward. They embark on a fervent but doomed love affair as priests cannot marry and Ragna will not be a concubine. Little does Ragna know, her host, the bishop, is instigating the conflict between the English and Nordic settlers to his own gain, with a devastating impact on his housekeeper. As sweeping as it is intimate, On the Cold Coasts is a powerful, enduring story of love and personal sacrifice.

About the Author

Vilborg Davidsdottir earned a degree in media studies from the University of Iceland in 1991 as well as a bachelor’s in folkloristics and English in 2005 and a master’s degree in folkloristics in 2011. She worked in the media for fifteen years as a journalist, radio programmer, and TV reporter but has focused on her writing since 2000. She has written six novels, three of which―By the Well of Fates (1993), The Norns Judgement (1994), and Audur (2009)―take place during the Viking Age in Iceland, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Ireland. Her other three novels―Sacrifice (1997), On the Cold Coasts (2000), and Raven (2005)―are set in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Iceland and Greenland. On the Cold Coasts is her first book to be translated into English. Vilborg lives in Reykjavik with her husband and is the mother of three children.

Alda Sigmundsdottir is a writer, journalist, and translator. She grew up in Iceland, Canada, and Cyprus, and has also lived in Great Britain and Germany. Her translation work spans almost two decades and incorporates everything from annual reports to literature. She chronicled Iceland’s economic meltdown on her English-language blog, “The Iceland Weather Report,” and has subsequently been a frequent commentator and lecturer on her country’s social and economic situation. She has also written extensively about Iceland for the foreign press. Her first book, The Little Book of the Icelanders, was published in 2012.

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