Second paragraph of third chapter:
‘What?’
Thought-provoking novel set on an island off the west of Ireland in the summer of 1979. An English painter and a French linguist come to stay, one to capture the landscapes and peoplescapes, and the other to record the decline of the Irish language, which is helpfully translated diegetically every time it is used. The main narrative is interspersed with the real-time events of the Troubles, culminating in the Mountbatten and Narrow Water bombings, which are geographically not all that close to the setting of the story, but have a big psychological impact on the people who live there. It’s a vivid depiction of an isolated community whose engagement with the outside world is limited, but also a book that looks at what is effectively raiding of its cultural resources by artist and linguist (who naturally dislike each other). A good read.
