Author: Shona MacLean

Historical fiction

Published on 26 February 2026 by Quercus Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 528 pages, N/A
242 x 165 x 46 | 776g

From the bestselling author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes the unforgettable story of a Scottish town on the cusp of change and the group of townspeople whose lives will be irrevocably altered over the course of one tumultuous year.

----------------------------------------------------------'Shona MacLean's novels are smart, soulful and deeply engrossing. An exceptional, wise and compassionate storyteller, she can make any 'historical period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson'Superbly researched, entirely convincing, very clever and at times unbearably poignant. I loved it.' Andrew TaylorCromarty, The Black Isle, 1831.

As seagulls shriek and rise on the coastal winds, a circulating library in the bustling port town of Cromarty is meeting for the first time.

Ostensibly united by a love of books, the demands of social convention have brought together a disparate group of people. Charlotte Mackenzie, the remote and fragile wife of the local laird, seeks an escape from a loveless marriage; her best friend, Rachel Mackay, a former governess who is ardently in love with her own older husband, the town's minister; the young schoolmaster, John Learmonth, newly arrived from Edinburgh with secrets in tow; and the gentle bank clerk, Ludovic Cameron who dreams of a new life across the ocean, far from his erstwhile schoolmate, the malevolent Farquhar Hossack. When the laird befriends a wounded officer, a chain of events is set into motion that threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium of the community.

Against the backdrop of mass emigrations, an encroaching cholera epidemic, political unrest and the campaign to abolish chattel slavery in the British Caribbean, the people of Cromarty must negotiate their new world and each other, flitting in and out of each other's lives through one extraordinary year.

The Cromarty Library Circle is a richly woven and immersive portrait of connected lives, changing fortunes and the often-unseen forces that shape our destinies.

----------------------------------------------------------Praise for Shona MacLean'MacLean can make any period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson'An excellent work of historical fiction' Literary Review'A wonderful storyteller' The Times'Well-researched and fascinating' Guardian