Carys Davies’ Clear is set during the Highland Clearances of the 1840s, when a church minister is sent from the mainland to evict Ivar, the sole occupant of one of the last inhabited islands beyond Shetland. With no shared language and a mutual distrust, will the men manage to find understanding?
Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall is set on a fictional island off the Welsh coast. It is 1938, and teenager Manod is trying to imagine her future: she must either stay and look after her father’s house or marry and leave. Neither are appealing, and both carry threat.
Chaired by Liv Chapman
Tickets £10.50/£8.50
On Clear – “A compact, taut and brilliant novel with an ingenious premise. The book is about belonging, a dying language, secrets, and a pistol in a box. I loved every page.” – Anthony Doerr
On Whalefall – “O’Connor’s beautifully evocative debut explores the liminal spaces between aspiration and disappointment, adolescence and adulthood, land and sea . . . a highly impressive coming-of-age tale.” – The Observer
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