Why a Booktrail?
1920s: The grey Isle of Altnaharra which sits in the black sea off the wildest coast of Scotland.
Little Eve
What you need to know before your trail
Eve and Dinah are everything to one another, never parted day or night. They are raised among the Children, a community of strays and orphans ruled by a mysterious figure they call Uncle. All they know is the grey Isle of Altnaharra which sits in the black sea off the wildest coast of Scotland.
Eve loves the free, savage life of the Isle and longs to inherit Uncle’s power. She is untroubled save by her dreams; of soft arms and a woman singing. Dinah longs for something other.
But the world is at war and cannot be kept at bay. As the solitude of Altnaharra is broken, Eve’s faith and sanity fracture. In a great storm, in the depths of winter, as the old year dies, the locals discover a devastating scene on the Isle.
Eve and Dinah’s accounts of that night contradict and intertwine. As past and present converge, only one woman can be telling the truth. Who is guilty, who innocent
Travel Guide
Isle of Altnaharra
The grey Isle of Altnaharra is fictional although there is a hamlet of the same name inland in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands. You’ll be grateful the island isn’t real after reading this!
Isle of Altnaharra
The village of Loyal is one street lined with whitewashed houses that sits on the northernmost edge of Britain. Settled in the nineteeth century by Highlanders fleeing the fire and blood of the Clearances, Loyal was a kelp town until there was no more kelp.
The castle Altnaharra sat on the Isle of The same name, a quarter of a mile off the western shore the peninsula.” This is the castle which was rescued and repaired by a Colonel who returned from India and inherited the castle which he then brought back to life as it were. Two women joined him and they took in four fondlings. They were considered odd but left alone.
But then the island was cut off from Loyal and the mainland. The community seemed to have retreated into itself. There were few signs of life with the outside world.
“It was said in Loyal that the residents opened the gate at night under the autumn moon, and ran wild over the moor, painted blue, looking for souls to take. Some said they were all long dead, and that the Isle was now populated with ghosts.”
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Little Eve
Destination : Scottish Highlands Author/Guide: Catriona Ward Departure Time: 1912, 1917
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