Canongate Books, Edinburgh 2019

Malachy Tallack, Scottish songwriter, journalist and author of several books about the Shetlands, tells the story of a small valley on a Shetland isle, where  a couple of people live in 5 houses, shown conveniently on a map. In the centre of this small community are David and his wife Liz, who work their croft. Then there is Sandy, their son-in-law, whose wife has left him for the big city. David helps Sandy to become a crofter like himself hoping, that he will stay in the valley.

Alice, a writer and probably the alter ego of Tallack, has fled here after the death of her husband and finds new meaning in life by writing about this very valley, its history and inhabitants. She is intrigued by Maggie, the oldest person, who lives rather secluded, but seems to know more about everybody than she lets on. After her death David hands her notebooks over to Alice.

Terry, another born islander, is a depressed alcolholic since his wife and son left him. Only occasionally and rather unwillingly his son comes to spend the weekend with him.

The latest addition to the valley are Ryan and his beautiful wife Jo, but it turns out, that Ryan is no good, so David throws him and his wife out of their rented house.

 In the end Sandy´s house, also rented from David, burns down. The story could go on and on, has no real narrative twists and turns and leaves the reader rather exhausted, not the least because the Shetland dialect  is written in authentic, but very difficult to read phonetic transcription.