This beautiful story was not at all what I expected. It’s about the Presbyterian ministers who broke from the established church in protest against the system of patronage (wealthy landowners could install their own ministers in parishes on their estates) and formed their own Free Church. However, they gave up their homes and their salaries (emoluments), so had to find alternate ways to earn income and funds for new church buildings until their congregations were self-sustainable.
John Ferguson is one such minister who asks his brother-in-law if he knows of any work and ends up taking on the job of evicting the last inhabitant of a desolate Scottish island that the greedy British landlord wants to use for raising sheep. The story takes place towards the end of The Clearances, a punitive, inhumane practice begun after the Battle of Culloden in the mid-1700s that forced (often burned) Scottish people out of their homes and, if they survived, either onto land that was barren and ill-suited for farming or onto ships bound for the U.S., Canada and Australia.
The day after John arrives on the island, he falls off a cliff and the following day, Ivar finds him, tends to his wounds, and nurses him back to health. In their weeks together, they use pantomime and other visual clues to learn each other’s language and form a strong bond. There’s a surprising twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.
At just over 200 pages, this is a compact story that portrays the emotional toll The Clearances took on the Scottish people and what can happen when a good man takes on a task that is anathema to his moral compass and sees the human side of a tragedy up close rather than through the lens of greed. It’s a beautiful, atmospheric tale that, in little ways, is reminiscent of movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and The Piano. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Scribner through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
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