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A review by bgg616
The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford
5.0
St. Kilda, a World Heritage Site, lies 40 miles (64 KM) northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is actually an archipelago, and is home to a huge bird colony including the largest Atlantic Puffin colony in the UK. The inhabited island was evacuated in 1930 by the British government when it became unfeasible for people to continue living there. St. Kilda had been inhabited for 4,000 years. The last residents were tenants of a Highland laird who rarely if ever visited but collected rents.
I read this book because I have long been fascinated by the islands' history. I was supposed to visit this summer but the trip was cancelled. It is possible to travel there (£220 in 2022) on a day trip. The abandoned village remains a tourist site, and there is a museum. The inhabitants spoke Gaelic, raised sheep (the Soay is a rare breed that is being revived), selling fleeces, and knitted items. They grew potatoes but the soil was poor, and depended on money from tourism and what they could sell as well as supplies brought by ship. Winter was a lean and lonely time as ships often didn't arrive when scheduled. People barely survived.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I prefer books that are more history than fiction in this category. But though it has a love story at its center, this is a novel that does justice to the culture and context of the characters. The author created two characters, Chrissie, a young woman on the island, and Fred, an outsider. They fall in love. It's 1927 and Fred is there only for the summer. He's a student at Cambridge. Fred returns to the mainland, but because of misunderstandings, and lies told by one character, they don't stay in contact. Then the islands are evacuated a few years later. Fred doesn't forget Chrissie though.
The story moves between time periods effectively. Integrated into the novel are details of life on St. Kilda including religion, values, their language, and survival. The novel included these seamlessly. I learned how both World Wars impacted Scottish soldiers, especially Highlanders who lost their lives in great numbers. One of my favorite episodes involved two Gaelic-speaking soldiers making their way through Spain to attempt to get to safety. They are in the northern Basque-speaking area being hidden by a local family. When the woman of the house hears them speaking Gaelic, she recognizes that like her, they speak a minority (and oppressed) language. This spurs her to do more to see them to safety. As a linguist, and lover of minority languages (I studied Irish for more than 5 years), I found this scene very possible. I have witnessed similar bonds between minority language speakers even when they speak different languages.
While it is a "romance", the novel does not let that aspect of the story dominate. The story is skillfully rolled out. I appreciated the sense of authenticity of the details as the writer not only tells a love story, but, more importantly, creates a nuanced portrait of a culture and the death of a way of life.
I read this book because I have long been fascinated by the islands' history. I was supposed to visit this summer but the trip was cancelled. It is possible to travel there (£220 in 2022) on a day trip. The abandoned village remains a tourist site, and there is a museum. The inhabitants spoke Gaelic, raised sheep (the Soay is a rare breed that is being revived), selling fleeces, and knitted items. They grew potatoes but the soil was poor, and depended on money from tourism and what they could sell as well as supplies brought by ship. Winter was a lean and lonely time as ships often didn't arrive when scheduled. People barely survived.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I prefer books that are more history than fiction in this category. But though it has a love story at its center, this is a novel that does justice to the culture and context of the characters. The author created two characters, Chrissie, a young woman on the island, and Fred, an outsider. They fall in love. It's 1927 and Fred is there only for the summer. He's a student at Cambridge. Fred returns to the mainland, but because of misunderstandings, and lies told by one character, they don't stay in contact. Then the islands are evacuated a few years later. Fred doesn't forget Chrissie though.
The story moves between time periods effectively. Integrated into the novel are details of life on St. Kilda including religion, values, their language, and survival. The novel included these seamlessly. I learned how both World Wars impacted Scottish soldiers, especially Highlanders who lost their lives in great numbers. One of my favorite episodes involved two Gaelic-speaking soldiers making their way through Spain to attempt to get to safety. They are in the northern Basque-speaking area being hidden by a local family. When the woman of the house hears them speaking Gaelic, she recognizes that like her, they speak a minority (and oppressed) language. This spurs her to do more to see them to safety. As a linguist, and lover of minority languages (I studied Irish for more than 5 years), I found this scene very possible. I have witnessed similar bonds between minority language speakers even when they speak different languages.
While it is a "romance", the novel does not let that aspect of the story dominate. The story is skillfully rolled out. I appreciated the sense of authenticity of the details as the writer not only tells a love story, but, more importantly, creates a nuanced portrait of a culture and the death of a way of life.