{"product_id":"the-chronicles-of-iona-exile","title":"The Chronicles of Iona: Exile","description":"\u003cp\u003eNamed to \"Kirkus Reviews\" Best of 2012. Silver Prize Winner  2012 \"ForeWord Clarion\" Book of the Year Awards  Historical Fiction. \"Exile\"  the first novel in the historical fiction series \"The Chronicles of Iona\"  is the story of the two men who laid the foundations of the Scottish nation  an Irish monk  Saint Columba  and a Scottish warlord  Aedan mac Gabran. They were a real-life sixth-century Merlin and King Arthur and their story has never been told. It is 563 A.D. The world has been plunged into chaos by the collapse of the Roman Empire and barbarian invasions: civilization holds on by a thread. Columba  a powerful abbot and prince of Ireland  is exiled for a violent act to the pagan colony of Dalriada on the west coast of Scotland. Awaiting him there is Aedan mac Gabran  the down-and-out second son of the colonys previous king  slain by the bloodthirsty Picts. Together  this unlikely pair travels the breadth of a lawless  divided realm  each in search of his own kind of unity. Their path is fraught with blood feuds  lost love  sacrifice  miracles  dark gods  and monsters. Beset on all sides  their only hope is to become alliesand to forge a daring alliance with the pagan Picts. How Columba overcame exile and a crisis of faith to found the famous monastery of Iona (one of the greatest centers of learning in Dark Age Europe) and  from it  the Celtic Church in the British Isles; and how Aedan avenged his fathers death and became  against all odds  the progenitor of Scottish kings and the greatest warlord of his age  begins here. For both  what begins as a personal imperative becomes a series of events that lead to the foundation of Iona and the kingdom of Scotlandevents that literally change the world.Historically authentic yet told with a bold fictional sweep  The Chronicles of Iona: Exile plunges the reader into the world of sixth-century Scotland and Ireland  the veritable Dark Agesa world on the brink of either collapse or creation  poised between myth and history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44974628306997,"sku":"ByrdShop_0615602541","price":59.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780615602547.jpg?v=1770666410","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-chronicles-of-iona-exile","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}