Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor

Elizabeth O’Connor’s debut novel, WHALE FALL, is set in 1938 on a remote Welch Island. When a dead whale washes up on the shore, it feels something like an omen. Eighteen-year-old Manod has spent her entire life on the island with her father, a lobsterman, and her younger sister. When two English anthropologists come to the island to study the people and their culture, Manod becomes their interpreter. She gets a glimpse of another life and hopes to leave the island with them when their project is complete.

O’Connor’s spare prose sets the tone of the novel, lending itself to the remoteness of the island and its people. Insular and traditional, the twelve families who inhabit the island and their way of life are alien to the scientists, who view them as primitive and uneducated.

This is a quietly reflective novel that deals with the subject of cultural differences and their interpretation – how those outside of a culture misinterpret and assign meaning to things inappropriately. The scientists’ appropriation of the island culture, its people, and artifacts for their own purposes relegates the islanders to exotic creatures stripped of their humanity.

While this is a sad tale in some respects, the setting and the characters left a lasting impression on me. Days and weeks after finishing the novel, I still think about them. Manod, a tenacious and resilient heroine, is the heartbeat of the novel, while the setting is the life blood. O’Connor has portrayed the islanders as richly traditioned, hardworking, and connected through the generations. An admirable debut.

This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my interview with Elizabeth O’Connor on May 23 at 7pm and May 25 at 6am on Superior Reads.