To Survive a Viking Raid: A Book Review of The Book of I by David Greig
A Viking, a monk, and a mead wife remain as the only living survivors on the island Iona after a bloody massacre. When everyone is for themselves, their precarious situation makes the mere 250 miles to the coast of Scotland feel like a galaxy of distance. They each have a decision to make.
A monk, a Viking, and a mead wife walk into a monastery.
Sounds like an opener of a joke, right?
But it’s not a joke with punch line, this tag is David Greig’s brilliant hook for his debut historical fiction, The Book of I. This highly anticipated novel, laced with purposeful dark comedy, rose to the top of my list of books in 2025. I could not have predicted what Greig would write in his tale about a destitute mead wife, a insecure monk, and a resurrected Viking, but I can assure you that it was a delight to read.
The Book of I is set in 825 AD at a real monastery and the surrounding village off the coast of mainland Scotland. The island was colonized by monks seeking solitude to copy the Scriptures. The remote location paired with the abbey’s famed stewardship of important and costly relics made the shores and residents vulnerable to Viking raids. And while the history of Iona is intriguing all on it’s own, Greig strength is in his brilliant characters.
Protagonists Grimur (the Viking), Martin (the monk turned abbot), and Una (the mead maker) teach us how to survive a Viking raid, and other upsetting life circumstances, once they recognize their vulnerability and opt to trust one another rather than turn against.
Kirkus Review wrote this of the relationship of the three unlikely characters, “If this sounds tidy or precious, it is neither. The story is messy in the ways that being human is always messy. And it’s messy in ways that make the ninth-century Hebrides feel real.”
After reading this novel, I will never call a Viking lovable. But I will root for one. And I will admire the poetry of their existence. For the great question Grimur poses by his very burly existence: How can we ever truly know good if we don’t dabble in the bad, evil, and atrocious?
While Greig’s writing background and passion is screenplays and scripts for the stage, I am so grateful to whoever convinced him to try writing a novel. Greig celebrates humankind, by letting them act out their own unique and important narrative exactly as they would. He doesn’t try to change his characters. He writes with confidence that their experiences will do that enough for them. I truly felt like I could settle in and enjoy reading whenever I cracked the spine on The Book of I.
So, please, just read it.
Here are a few more titles I recommend that connect history with modern day readers:
