In Two Ravens, Cecelia Holland brings alive a stark and smoldering world-- austere, crystalline, beautiful, yet terrifying-- and a man strong enough to overcome all impediments to freedom except the bonds of his own wounded nature.

The setting is twelfth- century Iceland. It is a world of conflict within conflict: Christian against pagan, father against son, brother against brother. And in the tough, impassioned Bjarni, who reflects both violence and the poetry of this primal land, we have a hero congruent with his time.

Fleeing his country-- unwilling to bear the yoke of his father's ferocious domination-- Bjarni steals the boat upon which is family's survival depends, enlists the help of his younger brothers, and sets sail for the Norway of the Vikings, stirred by the legends of their strength and courage. Landing in the Hebrides, soon beleaguered, outnumbered in a deadly contest, and abandoned by his brothers, Bjarni makes his way alone to England, where, winning the favor of the king, he enjoys a time in a peaceful land. But he looks always homeward, and at long last begins the journey back.

The Iceland to which he returns is a chaotic and embittered isle, and his home is riven by conflict and anger. Finally Bjarni must decide whether to seize the victory within his reach-- isolating himself, conclusively, from his kin-- at the cost of becoming a pitiless man like the father he has hated and forsworn.