The Inn at the Edge of the World

Original review from May 2006

Have you noticed my fir?' asked the professor. Jessica, emerging from the sparse and anonymous forests of her imaginings, misunderstood him. Fur? Was he speaking of his own body hair? Was he perhaps a werewolf? Or was he drawing attention to some unappreciated mink, ocelot or garment of beaver?
'. . . planted it years ago,' he was saying. 'Whipped off the tinsel and the gewgaws, stuck it in the garden and now it's nearly sixty feet tall.'

An innkeeper on a remote Scottish island advertises a Christmas break for people who want to get away from the holiday season and five people turn up; a famous actress, an unknown actor, an elderly widower, a recently-divorced psychoanalyst and a shop manager.

I like this show more author's books - they're nice and short, the stories go in unexpected directions, and they usually have a touch of the uncanny about them.

Re-read for the Motley Fool online Book Club (Dec 2012/Jan 2013):

No-one else seemed to enjoy "The Inn at the Edge of the World", which I nominated because it's the only book with a Christmas setting that I own.

On re-reading it I found it quite old-fashioned, like a Muriel Spark book but without as many laughs. I've read a couple of the author's other books and they have the same kind of feel too.

I had forgotten about Mabel's webbed fingers until they were mentioned at the end. So it's probably because of her that they were really drawn to the island, rather than because of Eric's desire to run a country pub. I guess that's why she likes fur coats too. show less

As you'll imagine, it was the wonderful title that drew me to this book. The novel itself isn't, to be honest, quite as wonderful, but it's by no means a poor thing: I did like it, but it was a bit of a let-down after the title!

Eric, an Englishman who's bought a cottage hotel on a remote Hebridean island in the hopes that the isolation will stop his wife from sleeping around, places an ad in the English papers suggesting his hostelry as the ideal place for an Escape Christmas holiday. Five disparate people seize on the idea, and travel separately to spend a few days in seclusion among the islanders . . . and, it seems, the selkies; the islander called Finlay and his unnamed sister-in-law seem to be beyond even selkiedom, to be show more archetypal beings of some unidentified kind. What follows is really a comedy -- or tragicomedy -- of manners with supernatural overtones: I grinned a lot, laughed aloud a couple of times. The narrative technique is interesting too: an almost aggressive use of multiple viewpoints which is quite unsettling (in a good sense). All in all, a well spent few hours. show less

"They change the skies, but not their minds, who sail across the seas."

Written with a deceptive lightness, and at turns funny, sweet, deep, and sad. Reading it made me think of precious things I have lost and fear to lose, and made me happy. 10.10.07

Recommended