Longlisted for the 2025 Highland Book Prize
Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel’s fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home. Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Helen Firth makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. As Helen draws closer to death, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she believes herself to be isn’t who she really is. A powerful reimagining of the Norse myth of Hel, The Shapeshifter’s Daughter celebrates the joy of reclaiming our stories.
Bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster Sally Magnusson has written several books for adults and children, most recently her Sunday Times bestseller Where Memories Go (2014) about her mother’s dementia, The Sealwoman’s Gift (2018), her acclaimed debut novel, The Ninth Child (2020) and Music in the Dark (2022). Sally lives outside Glasgow.