'Ingenious, gripping, thoughtful' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

After fraudulently winning a writing competition, Sidony Redruth is sent by her editor to write the first-ever travel book on Hy Brasil, a near-mythical island somewhere in the Atlantic, whose very existence has been a matter of debate as late as the nineteenth century.
Elphinstone's plot takes the island location as its starting point, throws in some old-fashioned piracy, a lost treasure, modern-day drug smuggling, political intrigue, an active volcano and a tragic love affair. Told through Sidony's notes for her book, Hy Brasil has all the elements of an adult adventure story, but it is also a contemporary thriller with literary influences ranging from The Tempest and Treasure Island to Moby-Dick.

"Every other page, it seems, is gilded with erudite detail, bringing the saga templates to life . . . It's a refreshing delight to read a novel of such extremely high calibre which interweaves mythical, magical and historical . . . Elphinstone is a worthy successor to writers like Linklater and Mackay Brown, developing their themes in the new century with a voice which is distinctly her own." - * Herald *

"As warm and inviting as a hot spring on a clear winter day." - * The Times, on The Sea Road *

"A canny, graceful writer whose prose is as clear and clean as Greenland air . . . This is historical fiction at its best, and the quality of Elphinstone's prose shines from every page." - * Globe and Mail (Toronto) on The Sea Road. *