Reviews

Little Wing is a lovely read about family and the importance of place. It unfolds in dual timeframes. In 1969, a sixteen year old girl gets pregnant and is sent away to live with a relative in the Scottish Hebrides. In 2005, we meet Nell and Dougie, both in their 30s and living in Colchester and London respectively. Nell is running a cafe and dealing with her mother's early onset dementia. Dougie is a photographer who is battling depression. It's apparent that the three storylines will connect, but it's unclear how that will happen.

I loved the characters in this book and I cared about them all. I also loved the sound of windswept and beautiful Harris in Scotland and was sorely tempted to jump on a plane and go there until I thought to look up the weather forecast which for this week in February is 7 straight days of rain, short days and highs of 7 degrees.

A couple of things bugged me. Firstly, I question whether someone could really be in their mid 30s and have never seen their own birth certificate/know where they were born. Having a passport or a birth certificate for ID is a pretty standard requirement in this day and age, so that's something you have to suspend disbelief about.

Also, this is the second book I've read recently with a young mother raising a baby completely on her own in an isolated location and absolutely revelling in every minute of it. I have to admit I think that would be my idea of hell and I'm not sure it would have been helpful for me to read this when my kids were little. Maybe that's just me?

But putting those things aside, this is gorgeous read with a hint of mystery, characters you love and a heartwarming conclusion.

marshipe's review against another edition

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4.0

Slow start but really sweet story with complex and charming characters.

portybelle's review against another edition

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5.0

I absolutely adored this book from start to finish. It is so beautifully written and I found the stories of all three main characters so compelling.

Freya North writes about all kinds of relationships so exquisitely in this book. The complicated and sometimes difficult relationship between Nell and her mother was quite moving to read about. I loved Nell’s care and support for her staff in the Chaffinch Café who all leapt off the page and seemed so real to me. Particularly poignant was the relationship between father and son, Gordon and Dougie. The story of Nell’s mother, told in separate chapters in her own voice was both sad and uplifting. She had such strength of character and I loved how she found her place in the world, in a way she would never have expected. Nurse Fire also deserves a mention both for her care of Nell’s mother in the past and the way she helped Nell in the present.

There are also relationships with the land explored in the book and having visited Harris, I found this a particularly well developed strand of the story. It is home in so many ways to the characters whether willingly or reluctantly. The island has an emotional pull on all who live there. Freya North describes the physical landscape so well that it really brought the rugged beauty of Harris to life.

Little Wing is a gorgeous read about finding who you are and where you are meant to be. It is full of tenderness, light and hope. It may only be January, this may only be the third book I’ve read this year, but already it is on my list of Top Reads for 2022. Just wonderful!