A passionate, well-written story of love on the 1878 Scottish coast, Stirling's novel centers the small cattle farm owned by Vassie Campbell and worked by her and her daughters while her drunken, feckless husband runs a fishing boat with their two sons.
Their marginal, labor-intensive life is disrupted by the coming of new owners to the larger, adjacent farm, Fetternish. First is the invasion of sheep, led by the shepherd Michael Tarrant, handsome and enigmatic, who immediately captures the passions of sensual Biddy and intellectual Innis Campbell. Then come the lairds themselves, the Baverstock brothers, one of whom is soon captivated by beautiful Biddy and the land itself, so removed from squalid, civilized Edinborough.
And there's the youngest sister, Aileen, not right in the head, who communes with fairies and hides a secret with the power to destroy the family.
While it all sounds formulaic, in Stirling's capable hands the story develops a rare complexity and atmosphere. She permits no certainty of love triumphant; events are more likely to be ruled by other vagaries of fate, like cattle illness or headstrong stupidity.
Her characters are complex people with strains of stubborn foolishness, appetite or shortsightedness to balance their more reasonable qualities. The exceptions to this are both men; the silent, long-suffering minister and the girls' father, Ronan Campbell, whose lazy selfishness hides only a deeper, brutish nature.
The Scottish coast is a character in itself and the book is richly fleshed out with details of the daily work, complex motivations and differing social perspectives of the characters. Thoroughly enjoyable.
