Delicate, dreamlike, beautifully written

I really appreciated the experience of reading this having completely forgotten the ‘about’ of it. O’ Connor shows real craft in the way she drip feeds in the background information of setting, time, characters and their relationships, also the matter of the physical world itself.

There is almost an ‘outside time, outside place’ which I am reluctant to break for the reader, but which (unfortunately!) will inevitably be broken by book jacket and blurb

The setting, which feels in some ways ancient and unchanged with the small island community more deeply wedded to times past than times in its own present, nonetheless feels the darkening future of wider history to come. Again. O’ Connor never overemphasises this, she drip feeds it. There are also other influences which come from outsiders.

In some ways, ‘nothing much’ happens, just the internal turmoils and struggles of the young woman at the centre of this story, but both the oppression, the frustration and the connection to home, to roots and identity are beautifully evoked by the author. She engages the reader fully with her central character, and with the natural world of its setting.

A short novel, but a rich and layered one. And rather welcome, when there seems to be a tendency for some books to overstay their welcome!

Set on an isolated island off the coast of Wales, 'Whale Fall' charts a year in the life of a young woman named Manod and her encounters with two anthropologists who arrive from the mainland. This beautifully written novel is delicate and evocative and follows a really interesting coming of age story, while also feeling like a real love letter to a vanishing world.

Throughout the novel the ever-increasing references to the oncoming war and the turmoil of mainland life cast an incredibly ominous note over the novel and give a real sense that the novel is taking place balanced on a tipping point: the world of the island and the old way of life is at the heart of the book and yet the threat of the outside world is constantly looming.

Elizabeth O'Connor's writing has a wonderful focus on nature and the landscape which surrounds and is so central to Manod's life. O'Connor's descriptive writing is fantastic and I really felt swept away in her descriptions of the island and in the traditions of island life.

Many thanks to Picador for the ARC. I'm looking forward to recommending this to customers when it is published in April

Whale Fall felt like it was hovering outside of a larger, deeper idea. Saying that, I really enjoyed it. The short paragraph/vignette structure felt right for the time period, a time of emotional unease with war, money, and weather battering from all sides, unsure of its beginning and end. The introduction of the visitors did much more to the psychology of the characters and even plot, than I thought it would! For such a short novel O'Connor did so well in making me feel unnerved, and lustful.

For fans of Claire Keegan, I'm looking forward to seeing this instore.

This is a beautifully written and hugely atmospheric novel, one which will stay with me. The island is hauntingly portrayed, and the story feels fresh and original. I devoured it in a day

This is a short but incredibly arresting and atmospheric read, I tore through it and felt like I’d left a bit of myself on the island at the end. Incredibly beautiful and deserves a wide audience. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I devoured this short novel in almost one sitting. I wasn’t aware that such remote islands had still existed so recently and because of this I found the story both sad and depressing but at the same time the writing was so beautiful that it was a joy to read.

Beautiful writing for an evocative and almost old fashioned debut. Wonderful setting on a remote island immersed in nature and longing.

Whale Fall is a sad little story about Manod who is in her late teens and living (stranded like the whale?) on a remote island off of the Welsh coast. Very few people still live there and they try to conjure a living from fishing and farming. A meagre existence at best. Strangers arrive to record the island's verbal history and Manod is drawn in by their seductive ways. It is a short book but it packs a punch. The sense of isolation and desolation is real.

This is an interesting and original story, loosely based on the history of islands off the coast of Wales and Ireland. Manod lives with her father and younger sister on a remote island where fishing is the only industry. In 1935, a couple of researchers come from England to get material for a book and employ Manod as a translator. At the start, they seduce her with their sophisticated ways,but gradually exploit her and the other islanders. I found this book very sad.

This is a gem of a book. Set on a remote Welsh island just before the start of WW2, it explores the life of the small population of islanders battling nature and the draw of the mainland. The story is told through the eyes of 18 year old Manod who lives with her father and sister but dreams of a better life and further education in England. The arrival of 2 anthropologists from an English university appears to offer hope of a way off the island but all is not exactly what they claimed things to be.

The writing is beautifully atmospheric and descriptive and although I found it initially somewhat confusing it soon feels as if you are indeed inside Manod’s head as it wanders through her dreams, the reality, the stories and most importantly her mother’s presence and passing.

A wholehearted recommendation for this book. Sit down and soak it all in.

Thanks to NetGalley.co.uk and the publishers for this DRC in exchange for this honest review.

A good coming of age story! I liked the mystery of the storyline and how well written the isolation of the island felt. Would recommend for fans of character driven novels

Set is 1938, this tells the story of Manod, who lives on a remote island, with a declining population, off the coast of Wales, The world is preparing for war yet the island is untouched. Then a whale is stranded on the beach. Shortly afterwards, two researchers arrive from the UK drawn by the story of the whale and by the islanders way of life. The whale symbolises life beyond the island but as the whale decays so does Manon's love of her island life. This was beautifully characterised and was an emotive and descriptive read which I devoured in one sitting.

As soon as you start with this novel you are transported through delightful imagery and enticed into the rest of the story.
We follow manod and her introspection of the inevitablity of her life on the small island where she lives, and the daydreams of leaving for the mainland. Her growing interest in the two English visitors develops her fantasies of escape and heightening sexuality.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, short but impactful and woven with folktale influence, I read it in one sitting. Manod is a character you can easily emphasise with, that feeling of being other, to friends and strangers alike.
Some of the best writing I have read in recent years, an incredible debut novel!

A massive thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.

While this is not the type of book I normally reach for, I really enjoyed it. It is also incredibly impressive for a debut novel, so massive props to Elizabeth O'Connor for this gem.

It took me a while after finishing this to consider the significance of the whale, as it was a theme seen throughout the book and threw me for a slight loop. Aside from the narrative plot points revolving around the whale, the title also helped me out to figure this out, or at least, attempt some analysis. A whale fall is its own unique biological event, where once a whale dies and sinks to the ocean floor, it makes a brand new, temporary ecosystem. In a way, this perfectly describes the plot of the book. A whale becomes beached on a remote island and then attracts new organisms, two British researchers, who then feed on the surrounding area. They scavenge for scraps of information and utilise everything, and everyone, around the whale to get to their goal. Aside from causing some disturbance, they also influence the surrounding area, causing our MC, Manod, to become interested in leaving the island and not following the path that is expected from her.

Without spoiling too much, this book was fascinating, and I found myself unable to step away from it. I really recommend people to check it out once it is released in May.

A quiet, gentle telling of life on a small Welsh island in the 1930s, a paean of folklore and traditions. But the romanticisation of that life by a pair of seemingly sympathetic and genuine anthropologists from the mainland is starkly put to ground by the reality of the harshness, uncertainty and isolation as depicted by Manod. As with all isolated communities, if life were so rosy why would folk be desperate to leave?

While it took some time to immerse myself in this book, I eventually found myself captivated by it. The narrative beautifully captures the sense of longing and isolation inherent to life on a remote island, one that mirrors the struggles of many British islands grappling with migration and harsh living conditions. The arrival of two visitors, who study the island's people and culture, brings forth a complex dynamic, as they simultaneously belittle and romanticize the islanders' way of life.

A quietly beautiful story of Manod, a young woman whose desire to discover life beyond the small island she inhabits is stoked by the arrival of two people from the mainland.
The writing is mesmerisingly visceral and wonderfully descriptive - I began to feel that this was a place I knew and felt quite protective over!

What a beautiful and evocative piece of writing. Set on a tiny island off the coast of Wales, this is a love letter to a way of life in its dying throes and on the Eve of WWII. Two students come from Oxford come to gather material for their book. Manod, our young protagonist, becomes seduced by the idea of leaving for the mainland and a different type of life. The real stars of the show though, are the nature and creatures which dominate islanders lives, and the old sea faring folk tales. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

On Whale Fall, we follow Manod, a young woman living with her younger sister and father in a remote island of the Welsh coast, in 1938. We learn about her dramatic past with her mother, the pressure of what's expected of her as a woman living at that time, and also her struggles towards her future - she is not sure of what she wants for her life, but she knows she wants more of what she's getting if she continues to live on that island.
She lives a very simple and tedious life until one day a whale gets stranded on the beach and soon after that a couple of researchers from England get to the island in order to study their costumes and folk traditions.
Because Manod is basically the only person on that island who can speak proper English, the English couple rely on her for all kinds of assistance.
Meanwhile, Manod gets increasingly more curious about life in England (especially what concerns how women live and behave in the English society) and also the threat of a war in Europe.
I found this novel to be very atmospheric and visual.
This author's writing style might not please everyone - the structure sometimes can be a little challenging to go through.
It's been a couple days since I've finished reading this and I keep thinking about it. The people, the beach, that poor whale, the lore, the setting, everything. I guess I loved it!
Too short, I'd say. I wish this novel were longer. LOL
(usually I'd wish for the opposite)

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book.

This book featured in the 2024 version of the influential and frequently literary-prize-prescient annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (last year included Tom Crewe. Michael Magee and Jacqueline Crooks – and recent years have featured Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others).

And it is the second book I have read this month (February 2024) after “Clear” by Carys Davies which reminds me of a combination of two of the three strongest books on the 2022 Booker longlist: Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These” and Audrey Magee’s “The Colony”.

Reminiscent of Keegan’s writing due to the conciseness of the prose – the author explicitly cites Keegan’s novel, and her extraction of anything superflous to her narrative as an inspiration, but has form in tight prose as already an award winning short story writer (White Review Prize winner in 2020 for her “Women With A White Pekingese”).

And of “The Colony” due to its setting on a very small and declining fishing island, which in the story is set off the coast of Wales (but one which per an author’s note is “based on an amalgamation of islands around the British Isles” – including the Blasket Islands off the West Coast of Ireland where her grandfather lived pre the islands’ depopulation: note that these Islands may be better known to Booker enthusiasts as the birthplace of Bridget from “This Other Eden”).

The first party narrator of the novel, set in 1938 in the increasing tension ahead of World War II, is Manod. 18 year olds she lives with her widowed fisherman father (who she refers to as Tad) and her younger sister Llinos. Whereas Manod speaks good English and is fascinated by the mainland – the rather wild Llinos is interested only in the local flora and fauna on the windswept Island and refuses to speak anything but the native language.

Two visitors mark the year – and dominate the narrative. The first the eponymous whale that beaches on the Island and gradually rots. The second two English academic researchers – Joan and Edward – that decide to base themselves on the Island and write a book about the Island, its people, customs, folkstories and folksongs.

Manod’s English and intelligence make her immediately useful to Joan and Edward (while she is drawn to them as a way off the Island with Edward even becoming her lover), although she feels increasingly unsure of what they really think of her and the way in which they interpret the Island.

Overall this is a beautifully crafted novel – the Welsh scattered through the novel, the extracts from Joan and Edward’s researches (including the local legends and folk tales), Manod’s complex embroidery, the many character dynamics in the novel, the way a whole community is captured, even the shifting mainland situation (including the way in which Joan’s desire to capture and preserve the Islander’s way of life is caught up with her membership of Oswald Mosley’s group), the whale metaphors and so much more contained in around 200 very generously spaced pages. An excellent debut.