BOOKTOPIA’S
2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR
A haunting and magical new novel about joy, grief, courage and transformation, from the international best-selling author of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
The last time Esther Wilding's beloved older sister Aura was seen, she was walking along the shore towards the sea.
In the wake of Aura's disappearance, Esther's family struggles to live with their loss. To seek the truth about her sister's death, Esther reluctantly travels from Lutruwita/Tasmania to Copenhagen, and then to the Faroe Islands. On her journey, Esther is guided by the stories Aura left behind: seven fairy tales about selkies, swans and women, alongside cryptic verses Aura wrote and had secretly tattooed on her body.
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is a sweeping, deeply beautiful and profoundly moving novel about the far-reaches of sisterly love, the power of wearing your heart on your skin, and the ways life can transform when we find the courage to feel the fullness of both grief and joy.
“This intercontinental journey into joy, grief, nature and magic confirms Holly Ringland as one of Australia’s most precious, life-changing storytellers.”
Australia & New Zealand:
Booktopia Dymocks QBD
Amazon Apple
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UK + Commonwealth:
Bookshop.org Waterstones
Canada + USA:
House of Anansi Press Bookshop.org
Or, contact your favourite local bookstore.
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WHAT READERS SAY
“This book had me riding a tidal wave of emotions. In summary, I want to: swim in the ocean with Esther, cover my skin in tattoos, and hold my sister and mother in the closest never ending hug! Then I MUST travel to Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands to revel in the magic, beauty and folklore. This will be a ‘forever’ book for me - a forever recommendation, a forever favourite and forever in my heart.”
“Ringland’s ability to craft characters with such heart & depth will pull you in like a sailor to a siren. I cannot truly express how deeply moved I was by Esther & Aura’s stories. I just wanted to give these characters a big hug. This is a must read … a sublime experience to read The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding.”
“Wow! Holly Ringland has blown me away again with a completely unique story that has made me look at the world and our place within it a little differently after reading. I’ll be thinking about Esther Wilding for a long time to come just like I have continued to think of Alice Hart.”
REVIEWS
“Myths and legends are the touchstone to truth in this epic journey through love, loss, courage and kinship. But The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is also an elegant and mesmerising tribute to the places that hold our stories, heart and memories. Holly Ringland writes with such tenderness, wit and imagination about all these things that it’s impossible to come away from this magical story unchanged.”
SALLY PIPER, AUTHOR OF ‘BONE MEMORIES’
“Vivid and soaring … The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is a haunting story of trauma and redemption…a great recommendation for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, as well as Ringland’s debut The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.”
BOOKS+PUBLISHING
“A mythological journey as much as an unfolding mystery, full of symbols ... a magical, witchy, quirky, luminous book, full of the natural world, the night sky and the ever-changing water around the islands on which it is set.”
THE AUSTRALIAN
“Like the best books, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is ultimately a story about love. Ringland is a virtuoso of fairytale storytelling for adults.”
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“Holly Ringland creates expansive, magical worlds in her novels and packs them full of love. The story of Esther Wilding will get under your skin and stay there well after the last page.”
VICTORIA HANNAN, AUTHOR OF ‘KOKOMO’ AND ‘MARSHMALLOW’
“Nobody writes about the pain of being alive more deftly than Holly Ringland. She brings such empathy to the topics of grief, love, family conflict and loss…Astonishing in its scope, detail and sensitivity, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is tender, magical, epic, funny and devastating.”
KATE LEAVER, AUTHOR OF ‘THE FRIENDSHIP CURE’
“Another spell is cast by Holly Ringland. I was swept away by this triumphant and luminous story.”
MYFANWY JONES, MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED AUTHOR FOR ‘LEAP’
“This intercontinental journey into joy, grief, nature and magic confirms Holly Ringland as one of Australia’s most precious, life-changing storytellers.”
BOOKTOPIA
“Fans of Holly Ringland’s beautiful first novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, will fall equally in love with her second.”
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
THE WORLD OF
ESTHER WILDING
Watch Holly Ringland talk about writing her second novel:
Read Helena Nyblom’s fairytales, listen to Esther’s playlists and more:
“On the afternoon that Esther Wilding drove homeward along the coast, a year after her sister had walked into the sea and disappeared, the light was painfully golden.”