Pamela Norris
All Washed Up
Susan Fletcher’s fourth novel, The Silver Dark Sea, is unashamedly romantic. Championing hope, love and the transformative power of stories, it is set on Parla, one of a small group of fictitious, sparsely populated islands, which, with their puffins and sheep and imaginative folklore, recall the Orkneys.
The action takes place in the present. Maggie, now in her early forties, is mourning her husband, Tom Bundy, who accidentally drowned four years previously. Maggie was an inlander, but Bundys have inhabited Parla for generations. The community is close-knit and inward-looking, and Tom’s death arouses feelings of guilt and
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'I gulped down the whole thing in about three blissful hours.'
@WomackPhilip reviews new children's books by @hilary_mckay, @JonathanAStroud, @bookhorse, @conradwrites and Sam Thompson.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/orphans-outlaws
'He consistently fits unreliable "facts" around a specious argument. On practically every page, Husain betrays the Enlightenment principles he so energetically thrusts on others.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/fear-loathing-in-alum-rock
'Global peace still depends far too much on calm decision-making and displays of good sense by a relatively small number of people with control over the world’s nuclear arsenals.'
@LawDavF on a new book about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/countdown-to-armageddon