The remote coastal or island location has become something of a cliche in recent literary fiction, often giving a novel an off-the-peg windswept atmosphere while isolating its frequently solitary protagonist for the purpose of unhealthy introspection. Elizabeth O’Connor’s evocative and haunting debut seeks to do something different with the formula, exploring the larger themes of social inequality, tradition versus modernisation, and female emancipation between the wars.
Set during the last four months of 1938 on an island off the Welsh coast, the novel follows 18-year-old Manod and her quest to break free from her imprisoning surroundings. Three miles long and home to only 12 families, the island has an economy sustained by what its remaining inhabitants can catch from the sea – “most of the young men had been killed in the war, or were trying to get a job on the mainland”.
