Michael Crummey writes like an avenging angel, never putting a word wrong.' - Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'A gripping and credible page-turner about children surviving in the wilderness, but more than that: this Adam and Eve struggle to make sense of a world that's somewhere between Eden and Hell. 'Moving.The relentless bleakness is alleviated by the cinematic depiction of the surrounding wilderness, with Crummey's prose recalling that of Jim Crace in its strange, archaic terminology and sense of timelessness.' - Library Journal 'A gorgeous portrait of remote Newfoundland of yesterday with a remarkable story of human resilience at its core.' - Booklist This story of how two guileless youngsters navigate life will have a deep emotional impact on its readers.' - Publishers Weekly 'Heartfelt, extraordinary.Crummey delivers profound insight into how individuals grapple with the forces of nature, not only in the unpredictable environment, but in the mystifying interior of their temperaments, drives, and character.

'Crummey's refusal to go where you might expect-the offbeat humor can catch you by surprise-provides page-turning pleasures.An unusual, gripping period novel from a much-honored Canadian writer.' - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

By turns electrifying and heartbreaking, it is a testament to the bounty and barbarity of the world, to the wonders and strangeness of our individual selves. The Innocents is richly imagined and compulsively readable, a riveting story of hardship and survival, and an unflinching exploration of the bond between brother and sister. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested. Muddling though the severe round of the seasons, through years of meager catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family's boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. From prizewinning author Michael Crummey comes a spellbinding story of survival in which a brother and sister confront the limits of human endurance and their own capacity for loyalty and forgiveness.Ī brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline.

The innocents crummey