The Innocents - Michael Crummey

With an elegant prose style that elevates this book beyond the mere telling of a story  The Innocents will grab at your heart with its curious paradox of the visceral and the almost ethereal. This tale of an orphaned brother and sister surviving in the harsh coastal landscape of Newfoundland ploughs the very depth of what it is to be human in an environment where existence teeters on a tightrope. 

The consideration of a blood bond and the effect it has intrinsically is explored to its limits. Issues, too, of circumstance and the effects that may have on such a bond are eloquently and subliminally offered for the reader to ponder. The interaction of man with the natural world is a potent force within this novel also. 

The authenticity of research and an understanding of time and place transport the reader back to a past time where the detail is such that you can feel the hunger, the cold, and the effort of understanding a world beyond your four walls that holds little but mysteries. You can smell the sea ad fell the sting of ice upon your skin as Ada and Evered bring themselves, and each other, up, in the absence of their parents. 

This is not ‘uplit’ - far from it. There is a bleakness  that inveigles itself within you like the cold air of the landscape described. But it prompts various thoughts regarding the entire nature of survival and the human condition. Ada and Evered struggle to make sense of emotion and their own physical developments for they have no one to advise or offer help. At times it seems as if they cannot allow themselves the luxury of feeling, not in the sense that we expect to feel in our privileged lives. To stay fed, stay warm often  seems to be the sum total of their expectations. The reliance on each other is perhaps the one thing that offers them a window into a wider emotional understanding.

The passage of time is skilfully depicted with a slow almost languorous prose bordering on the poetic at times. Ada and Evered cannot hurry their lives for they are too busy spending time trying to live life rather than understand it. At times their existence seems joyless, bleak, unyielding and yet there is the sense that, because they know no different, their acceptance prevents them from experiencing any real depth of despair. 

Their interaction with other humans is limited. For Evered it is the necessary visit to the enigmatically named Hope ship where he encounters the Beadle. A couple of chance encounters from other seafaring expeditions offer both Ada and Everett a small glimpse into what life beyond their  ‘tilt ‘and the confines of their shoreline might offer.

Not a story to forget in a hurry. Particularly when you understand that it was inspired by a story the author found in local archives. My thanks to No Exit Press for a proof of this book.