Russia and the Hebrides: A Talk by Donald S. Murray.
25th June 2024, 7pm, Poolewe Village Hall. Free Entry, donations welcome.
In 2023, Donald published his book ‘Red Star over the Hebrides’, in which he uses prose and poetry to explore the links between Russia and his native Lewis. This evening, Donald will be talking about these connections – both absurd and moving, historical and mythical – that link the croftlands and shorelines of the Highlands and Islands and the steppes and tundra of ‘Russia’. Employing diverse and unusual narratives, his storytelling skills reflects the political unrest and religious fervour that sometimes affected these communities both before and after the drama of the Cold War.
Donald S. Murray was raised in Ness in the Isle of Lewis. His writing, both of fiction and non-fiction, has received widespread critical acclaim and appeared on shortlists and longlists for numerous literary awards. Donald’s debut novel about the Iolaire Disaster, As the Women Lay Dreaming, won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize in 2020, and was shortlisted for The Herald Scottish Culture Awards Outstanding Literature Award and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award in 2019.
