The Island Wife

Island Wife by Jessica Stirling and tells us the story of two sisters, Innis and Biddy Campbell, who live with their family on their Mother’s holding, a farm that all the females in the family work upon while the father and two sons work on their fishing boat. The book is set on the Isle of Mull in 1878.

Sister Biddy is the acknowledged local beauty while Innis is clever and mostly doesn’t mind being overshadowed by her sister. But when both girls all in love with the new shepherd on the local estate, many trials and tribulations occur. The whole Campbell family are not a very likeable lot, the father is a drunken lazy abuser and the mother appears quite heartless. Being full of disagreeable characters made this rather a slog to show more read. Despite the morality of the day and the strict religious and social conventions, many characters spend much of their time pursuing their passions. The book is rather depressing with it’s dark outlook and loutish characters. This is the first of a trilogy, but I doubt that I will continue on as I have no interest in what happens to these characters. show less

Schottland Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Auf der Insel Mull übernehmen die reichen Besitzer ein großes Gut und mit ihnen kommt ein Schafhirte, in den sich beide Töchter des benachbarten Anwesens verlieben.
Was sich zunächst wie eine durchschaubare historisch gefärbte Familien- und Liebessaga anlässt, wird tatsächlich zu einem mitunter etwas verwirrenden Roman über eine dysfunktionale Familie in einer harten Zeit.
Man muss schon genau lesen um immer zu wissen, wer was tut und wie wer wohin gehört. Das Buch ist nicht schlecht, nur die Hauptfigur Michael fand ich schwach ausgearbeitet.