SWIM THE MOON

By turns tender and tormented, this haunting, lyric Celtic rhapsody on the ancient theme of selkies—seal-people who in human form ensnare their mortal lovers—makes a bewitching debut novel. A little shaky dialogue doesn't mar the beauty of this mythic tale at all. Mysteriously drawn back to the remote cottage in northernmost Scotland where his male ancestors and his wife have all died by drowning, Richard Brennan experiences nightmares of grief and guilt that counterpoint his joy to be "home," playing fiddle in "sessions" around the countryside. Alone in the isolated bothy (cottage) alive with ghosts, Brennan fears for his sanity, his mind tormented by ghastly visions of the sodden corpses of his forefathers, but eventually his psychic wounds start to heal. When lovely, enigmatic Ailish appears at the seaside, dancing and singing rapturously in the silvery Scottish moonlight, Brennan joins his music—and his soul—to hers. Given how closely the author's last name resembles his hero's, one has to wonder whether an autobiographical element animates this eerie tale of love and loss. Brennan's music comes wondrously alive in rhythmic prose and elusively shifting imagery, proving that myth and legend are inseparable parts of being a folk musician. In the old songs, pain and delight together shape human life. One pays for the other, as the bards know, "when sea-girls wake us, and we drown." Definitely a writer to watch, Brandon has a vivid, original voice, full of poignant longing and haunting echoes. (Sept. 12)