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The Island Child
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
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The Island Child
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Publisher's Summary
A spellbinding, deeply felt debut novel - soaring and poignant - about passion, freedom, motherhood, and the power to shape our destinies.
Oona grew up on the island of Inis: a wind-blasted rock off the coast of Ireland where the men went out on fishing boats and the women tended turf fires; where the only book was the Bible; and where girls stayed at home until they became mothers themselves. The island was a gift for some, a prison for others. Even as a child, Oona knew she wanted to leave, but she never could have anticipated the tumultuous turn of events that would ultimately compel her to flee. Now, after 20 years - after Oona has forged a new, very different life for herself - her daughter vanishes, forcing Oona to face her past in order, finally, to be free of it. Heralding a singularly gifted new voice in fiction, The Island Child is a timeless story of birth and betrayal, storms and shipwrecks and fairy children, and the weight of long-buried secrets.
What the critics say
“It’s a rare pleasure to come across quite such an accomplished novel as The Island Child. This is a work positively brimming with pathos and emotion, articulated in truly exquisite prose. Oona is a captivating narrator. She’s alive on the page.” (Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall)
“Aitken stitches together many themes - folk-legend, family saga, love story, coming of age tale. The result is the sort of book you want to sink into a hot bath with and not emerge until it’s finished.” (Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You and Starling Days)
“I read The Island Child in a day, and I know I’ll be coming back to it. It reads like a dream. Written in quietly sorcerous prose, this novel combines the uncluttered abstraction of a fable with the odd calamitous detail. Like the casts of fairy stories, Aitken’s characters can stand for as much as you want them to - but they’re also fully realised individuals who come to you through peeks and glances, so that without being able to pinpoint how it happened, you know them, and feel you always have. This is a thrillingly original debut, and I can’t wait to see what Aitken does next.” (Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times)