This book wasn’t for me. If I had known that the main topic was suicide I wouldn’t have picked it up. I didn’t finish this book

A page turner you don’t want to miss
Martin, locked inside the prison of his recently acquired alcoholism, is on a quest to fulfil the promise of a holiday booked weeks before his wife’s sudden death. He stays in the reconstruction of an Iron Age dwelling overlooking the white-sanded fringes of the North Atlantic. Twenty miles to his north lies The Clisham, a coastal peak from which he plans to end his life.

We wrestle with the destruction of Martin’s life plan; revelation, drunken misadventure, HBO boxsets and the best of the world’s new whiskies await us. Events take a further turn when he stumbles upon a young woman lying next to a beached and dying whale, reluctantly taking her in. And Martin still has the seven remaining sachets of his wife’s ashes to consecrate and consume, and the possibility of being tracked down by his grownup sons, before beginning what might be his final climb.

Martin, the book's narrator, has been with Trish for over twenty years. Now, what remains of Trish is in an urn which Martin takes everywhere with him, still sharing every experience with her. Martin is a Sassenach but has decided to end his life on the beautiful Isle of Harris.
This literary novel is profound and elegiac. It's not just about death but about doing the right thing.
In his last days, Martin finds a naked woman - Caitlin - on the beach next to a dying whale and his quest to end his own life is joined by his need to help Caitlin find a new life.
There's humour, pathos and self-mimicry as the narrator speaks directly to the reader. At times I found myself answering him with my own words of wisdom making this a sort of interactive experience. There's an uncanny uniqueness to this novel and a story that once read will never be forgotten.

This is one of those times when being the first to rate and review the novel isn’t ideal, because I don’t have that many positive things to say about it, but no one seems to have read this one at all, no reviews on GR or Netgalley though it’s been up for download for a while, even the publisher reached out saying hey, read our book please. That’s a lot of neglect…so I set out to find out why.
My interest in this book was primarily geographical. Scotland is a place I’ve recently armchair visited once more through C.J. Cooke’s latest, Lighthouse Witches, and thought why not go back. And to be fair, from a purely geographical perspective this book suffices, albeit limitedly. But as a satisfying literary novel it leaves a lot to be desired.
Aside from a journey to Scotland, this book is mainly a journey through the mind of a recent widower who, unable to cope with the recent tragic death of the love of his life, decides to kill himself. Bleak? Sure. But bleak can be done in a variety of ways, some of which are compelling. This one didn’t quite get there.
It’s an overwhelmingly stream of consciousness situation, with the protagonist alternating between his memories, his favorite tv shows (which he and his wife both and separately watched obscene amounts of. I mean, I understand the appeal of a good tv show, but to rewatch the entire thing and more than once boggles the mind) , among other things. So in a meandering sort of way, you get the entire picture of a man who left an unhappy marriage upon meeting and courting the woman of his dreams, this includes epistolary courting with samples provided., and their entire blissed out life together until it ended.
Also, the entire time he drinks and catalogues his drinking, so if you ever wanted to know more about fine whiskey…there’s your chance.
Eventually, he meets a woman whom he helps, but he remains undeterred in his conviction to end it all. So, it isn’t one of those heartwarming stories about second chances and all that, either.
It’s just a slow, monotoneish drag of a suicide note, although in its final form it is presented as a project competed and finished by a friend of the protagonist from found and accumulated materials. So seven out of eight chapters of the book are done in the voice of the protagonist, which has a weird pomposity to it, a certain overdone quality which doesn’t go very far to help you engage with the man …and his plan.
Objectively speaking, this isn’t a terribly written novel by any means. It takes many active stabs at being literary and even profound, but the final product is neither interesting nor exciting enough to do much for readers, outside of maybe helping someone get to sleep.
Scotland offers many reasons to go there. This book…unless you’re really into slow, elegiac, drawn out suicide diaries…don’t know why you’d go there. Thanks Netgalley.

This is a fascinating exploration of mortality and how unexpected events can disrupt even the most fixed of mind sets. You will love the main character, even as you long to shake him back to life. The setting is perfect. This could not have been set anywhere but Scotland and the author paints a picture so clearly… A bit dark and gloomy, this won’t leave you feeling uplifted but it will leave you with a strong sense of having just experienced something with truth and substance,