It is 1938 and for Manod, a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales, the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself. The ominous appearance of a beached whale on the island''s shore, and rumours of submarines circling beneath the waves, have villagers steeling themselves for what-s to come. Empty houses remind them of the men taken by the Great War, and of the difficulty of building a life in the island''s harsh, salt-stung landscape.
When two anthropologists from the mainland arrive, Manod sees in them a rare moment of opportunity to leave the island and discover the life she has been searching for. But, as she guides them across the island-s cliffs, she becomes entangled in their relationship, and her imagined future begins to seem desperately out of reach.
Elizabeth O-Connor-s beautiful, devastating debut Whale Fall tells a story of longing and betrayal set against the backdrop of a world on the edge
