[.ca] Magpies and Sunsets (ISBN 1904492290)

Magpies and Sunsets:
Magpies hooks you by the second chapter. Ex-pat Scots -- and those who love them -- will find themselves drawn back in time and far away with James, our not-quite so well-adjusted as he'd like to think protagonist. Like any man, and in particular any Scotsman, James believes he has successfully repressed his past, but fate intervenes and compels him to confront his origins. As he travels back to the land of his birth, his sad and secret past life rolls back in living colour. An inspired and thought-provoking book, Magpies tells about the primal cultural force inside all of us, the siren song that picks you up and carries you on a strange and compelling journey home where perhaps you might find peace, or perhaps you might go down trying. I saw myself in this book, I lost myself in this book, and I was sorry to come to the final pages ... I will be looking for his next one.

A Story Well Told:
A tear escaped down my cheek as I flew from Stuttgart to Heathrow. James Macpherson was speaking with his grandfather. 5 seconds off the runway at JFK I closed the book, the story to linger in my mind throughout the rest of the evening and into the next day. Mr Marr knows how to tell a story. He transports, speaks and entertains. Humor is hiding on nearly every page delivering smiles, chuckles and belly laughs. It is used masterfully as a literary tool to make places vivid and characters equally pitiful and triumphant. The "scottish brogue" portions weave seamlessly in and out of the narrative so that the reader settles into a story well told. I will await expectantly for another offering from this gifted author.