WHALE FALL

I didn t want it to end Maggie O Farrell Powerful written with a calm luminous precision Colm Tóibín An Observer Best Debut of the Year 2024 It is 1938 and for Manod a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself The ominous appearance of a beached whale on the island s shore and rumours of submarines circling beneath the waves have villagers steeling themselves for what s to come Empty houses remind them of the men taken by the Great War and of the difficulty of building a life in the island s harsh salt stung landscape When two anthropologists from the mainland arrive Manod sees in them a rare moment of opportunity to leave the island and discover the life she has been searching for But as she guides them across the island s cliffs she becomes entangled in their relationship and her imagined future begins to seem desperately out of reach Elizabeth O Connor s beautiful devastating debut Whale Fall tells a story of longing and betrayal set against the backdrop of a world on the edge of great tumult The quiet cadences of Whale Fall contain a deep melody of loss held and let go It is a gentle tough story about profound change Anne Enright