The Quantum of Happiness

An unconventional travelogue of three journeys taken to the Isle of Lewis and the South Uist in the Hebrides, taking the reader through the lives of people, past and present, while at the same time placing them within the context of Gaelic culture, religion, and local superstition.The islands of the Outer Hebrides have long fostered a culture outside of time, a culture since eroded by the Highland Clearances and the suppression of Gaelic. But even now, in this age of electricity, mass media, smartphones, and the overwhelming dominance of the English language, a desire still lingers among most islanders to both tell and be told stories, a desire as ancient as oatcakes.Marius Kociejowski ranges across the islands of Lewis and South Uist exploring the faith, language, and histories of these last outposts of a traditional Gaelic culture that exists here as it does nowhere else. Part history, part travelogue, The Quantum of Happiness is a book which, like its author, abhors a straight line, but in straying off the main path, guides the reader to unexpected places, proving that even the smallest of islands can hold entire worlds within them.