the cover and title of this novel intrigued me but i did find the historical setting to be going too hard for the dire bleak type of thing.

This was an amazing book for a debut. I am looking forward to other books by Elizabeth O'Connor as this is such a great debut.

Whale Fall is a short novel set in 1938 on a remote island off the coast of Wales.

Manod is an intelligent young woman who has lived there her entire life, and knows no different than this harsh island existence.
Having become a stand-in mother to her younger sister after the death of the family matriarch, she leads a domestic life of chores and responsibilities, with little prospects for the future other than marriage.

She’s excited then when a boat brings two British ethnographers, looking to study the deeply old-fashioned culture of the island. They hire Manod as a translator and general guide, which at first feels liberating and flattering for her, but she soon begins to question the visitors real intentions.

This is a beautifully written book; the prose feels lyrical at times, and indeed folklore-based songs and stories are scattered throughout the story.
I really felt for Manod, like many women throughout history she finds herself in a restrictive and sexist era. In that sense this is very much a feminist text.

The mini British Invasion on the island felt quite realistic too; the ethnographers are your classic colonizers; happy to leave destruction in their wake once they have what they came for.
The impending onset of WW2 feels appropriately terrifying; what will become of the island and its traditional way of life?
This is somewhat answered by the afterword from the author about the inspiration for this book; other islands now abandoned, such as our own Great Blasket Island. I really appreciated that she included these reference points, as they added a lot to my experience of reading the story.

This is a quick, atmospheric read with an excellently developed sense of time and place. An at times poignant look at a life that no longer exists, and a relatable protagonist to root for. I really liked it; recommend!

With many thanks to @netgalley and @picador for my copy of #WhaleFall, available to buy now.

"Whale Fall" by Elizabeth O'Connor offers readers a haunting and atmospheric tale set against the backdrop of a remote island off the coast of Wales in 1938. For Manod, a young woman grappling with the harsh realities of her island home, the appearance of a beached whale signals ominous times ahead. As rumors of submarines and the echoes of the Great War haunt the villagers, Manod sees in the arrival of two anthropologists from the mainland a chance to escape her isolated existence and pursue a new life. However, as she becomes entangled in their relationship, Manod's dreams of freedom begin to unravel, leaving her stranded between the harsh landscape of her island home and the uncertain promise of the mainland.

O'Connor's prose is lyrical and evocative, painting a vivid portrait of life on the remote Welsh island. The sense of isolation and foreboding permeates the narrative, as Manod grapples with the weight of her past and the uncertainty of her future. The arrival of the anthropologists introduces a tantalizing possibility of escape, but their presence also brings complications that threaten to derail Manod's plans. As the tension builds and secrets are revealed, "Whale Fall" becomes a gripping exploration of longing, loss, and the search for belonging in a world on the brink of change.

However, while "Whale Fall" offers a compelling premise and richly drawn characters, some readers may find the pacing uneven and the resolution of certain plot points unsatisfying. The novel's atmospheric prose may overshadow the development of its characters, leaving some aspects of their motivations and relationships feeling underexplored. Additionally, the novel's exploration of themes such as isolation and longing may resonate more deeply with readers who appreciate introspective and atmospheric storytelling. Despite these minor drawbacks, "Whale Fall" is a haunting and beautifully crafted novel that will transport readers to a remote island where the echoes of the past reverberate in the present, and the promise of escape hangs tantalizingly on the horizon.

Absolutely stunning, the writing style is beautifully soothing, feels like the rythmn of waves coming forward & dropping back.

I know already, that I will remember her experience being exploit by people who don't have any empathy for the community on the island.

So many books have been written sbout small community living on a island. This little book and 'Clear' are definitely my favourites.

I am shocked that this is a debut novel as it is so well written and so engaging in its narrative voice. As someone living in Wales I loved all of the references to the Welsh language and culture, aswell as an awareness of the sad reality of the harshness of life for communities like Manod’s. The exploitation of the community by the English visitors was painful to read, but the ending - while hopeful - was a bittersweet one. I’m excited to see what Elizabeth O’Connor comes up with next.

Description:
Manod and her sister live with her father on a remote and tiny island off the coast of Wales. Two English ethnographers arrive and start putting together a book about island life, using Manod as a guide and translator.

Liked:
The sense of place is beautiful: the island is claustrophobic, windswept, beautiful and desolate, and the islanders fairly anonymous and interchangeable, but sketched as hardy, stoic, warm and self-possessed. Manod is a very sympathetic character, who tells her story without airs but with an eye for enriching detail. I really enjoyed the inclusion of the ethnographers’ collections of folk tales, children’s rhymes etc., which made me want to read real examples, even given the story calling into doubt the veracity of the recordings.

Disliked:
I could have gone for a bit more detail, a bit less sketching. I’d have liked to have known more about Manod’s relationships, and about the English folks’ political leanings in the run-up to the war.

Would recommend. I’m hoping O’Connor writes something slightly longer, next time - I’ll be looking forward to it.

Set on a fictional Welsh island it follows Manon who feels trapped on the island following the death of her mother.

I am in the minority here as I found the book to be too disjointed I also found the book reminiscent of several other books that did it better for me. For example Water,

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A whale is beached on a small Welsh island in 1938 marking a change for the locals, particularly Manod, a young woman who sees the bleakness of island life and looking to the mainland for her future. Soon two English anthropologists arrive seeking her help to translate local stories and songs for them. Could this be her pathway from a dying community?


Whale Fall is a quick read but one packed full of beauty, simple joy, bursting with the power of nature. Atmospheric in a cold, wet, salty coastal existence that feels palpable to the reader. The sense of a lost time with traditions and beliefs being swept away with the tide brings urgency to this haunting story. Manod's internal conflict, wanting more in her life for her sister and herself, and this possible way out warms with personal crisis of opportunity slipping away. Whilst Manod works with the outsiders, her delightful sister and father crack on without Manod's hope. A truly beautiful, touching story.

I liked this but I didn‘t love it as much as I thought I would.

Even before I started it, I felt like the premise was very similar to Audrey Magee‘s The Colony. Although some of the writing was beautiful, the story fell far short of Magee‘s book. For me, there was little tension in comparison and there were a few points where there was a disconnect in the story - even the whale itself didn‘t quite draw everything together.

3.5 stars

Whale Fall is a stellar debut by Elizabeth O’Connor.

Set in 1938, 18-year-old Manod is the daughter of a fisherman on an isolated island off the coast of Wales. She lives with her father and her sister, who she takes care of now their mother has passed. The population of the island is dwindling following losses of the first World War and the younger generation seeking prosperity on the mainland. The another war hums in the background.

Two researchers come to the island to document the way of living. Manod’s proficiency in English means she becomes an assistant to them. She becomes enamoured with the pair and the possibilities they represent. O’Connor does a wonderful job of portraying the complexity of this dynamic.

Whale Fall is full of atmosphere and emotion with a very light touch. The conflict between tradition and modernity (or colonialism, depending on which character you ask) is written from an angle I haven’t seen much of - it felt both fresh and timely.

A gem. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Set on a in 1938, this is an assured debut that deftly captures a world and a way of life that are about to change for ever.

18-year-old Manod is the daughter of a lobster fisherman on a rapidly depopulating remote island off the coast of Wales. The year is 1938; many of the few houses on the island are empty and falling into disrepair following the losses of the first World War and the younger generation who are increasingly seeking an easier life on the mainland. Manod's mother is dead so she looks after her younger sister and their father in their tiny cottage. The living is meagre and hard.

At the start of the novel, a whale is washed up on shore; in spite of attempts to float it into the sea, the carcass returns and remains on the beach, slowly decomposing. At around the same time, two young anthropologists arrive to carry out an ethnographic project to document the way of life on the island before it is too late, while in the background the rumblings of the impending war become harder to ignore, even in such a remote place.

Manod is relatively well educated, rare amongst the islanders in that she has been taught to speak English fluently by the visiting nuns who have charge of educating the ten or so children on the island. As such she is employed by the anthropologists to mediate and translate between them and the island inhabitants. At the outset she sees in them her hope of leaving for the mainland and a better life, but like the whale, they will turn out to be rotten at the core and she will need to make her own future happen.

This short novel ends with an author's note explaining that it was inspired by the stories of islands like St Kilda and the Arran islands which have suffered population decline over the course of the 20th century. Its sparse prose beautifully captures the dying throes of a way of life that is about to be swallowed up by progress and changed by historical events. Manod's character is beautifully portrayed - barely out of childhood, having led a sheltered, primitive life, a woman of few words, we make the same mistake as the anthropologists do if we think that she is therefore simple or ripe for exploitation. The emergence of her strength of character is flawlessly achieved, and flawlessly offset against the bigger picture of her little world, which she grows to see the value of even as she recognises how doomed it is. This is a gem of a book - read it.

The remote Welsh island setting of O’Connor’s debut novella was inspired by several real-life islands that were depopulated in the twentieth century due to a change in climate and ways of life: Bardsey, St Kilda, the Blasket Islands, and the Aran Islands. (A letter accompanying my review copy explained that the author’s grandmother was a Welsh speaker from North Wales and her Irish grandfather had relatives on the Blasket Islands.)

Eighteen-year-old Manod Llan is the older daughter of a lobster fisherman. Her sweetheart recently left to find work in a mainland factory. It’s 1938 and there are vague rumbles about war, but more pressing is the arrival of strangers here to study a vanishing culture. Anthropologists Edward and Joan learn snatches of Welsh and make recordings of local legends and songs, which are interspersed with the fragmentary narrative. Manod, star-struck, seeks the English researchers’ approval as she helps with translation and other secretarial duties, but becomes disillusioned with their misinterpretations and fascist leanings.

The gradual disintegration of a beached whale casts a metaphorical shadow of decay over the slow-burning story. I kept waiting for momentous events that never came. More definitive consequences? Something to do with Manod’s worries for her little sister, Llinos? A flash-forward to the abandoned island’s after-years? Or to Manod’s future? As it is, the sense of being stuck at a liminal time makes it all feel like prologue. But O’Connor’s writing is quite lovely (“The milk had formed a film over the surface and puckered, like a strange kiss”; “All of my decisions felt like trying to catch a fish that did not exist until I caught it”) and the book is strong on atmosphere and tension. I’ll look out for her next work.

LOVED LOVED LOVED, A lot of other reviews will be giving you the low down on this one, so all I’m gonna say is, stop waiting and just pick up a copy for yourself! A HIT I TELL YOU!
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Thank you to the publisher for sending me an invite to read this one early!!

Set on a rural island off of mainland Wales in 1938 the story follows Manod, the daughter of a fisherman and a dead mother. The book opens with a dead whale that has washed up on the beach and the arrival of 2 researchers who come to explore the Island and it's inhabitants, Manod begins working with them and the relationship changes from a working one to one of exploitation.

It's quite a somber read and I felt sorry for Manod pretty much all the way through. It was interesting to read about the life of basically a fishing village and how lives become intertwined when there are so few people on the island you live on.

I loved the way it was written, sort of poetic in a choppy way, it felt really modern and I really enjoyed the writing so will definitely be looking at reading more of Elizabeth's work.

I would recommend to those that like quite slow paced historical fiction .

I’ve just read All Among The Barley by Melissa Harrison and it was a very interesting companion read to Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor. Both books feature a young woman living in an isolated rural community in the 1930’s, unsure how to commence adult life now they’ve left school. In both books, an intriguing person (or two) arrives seeking help from our heroine to collect local folklore in exchange for some fascist propaganda. A weird coincidence in plot!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Whale Fall and recommend it for lovers of historical rural fiction.

A remote island and a declining way of life set the backdrop for this story . Two anthropologists arrive to study the place and see how the feeling of loss pans out

Sublime. Elizabeth O’Connor is a supremely talented new writer and this book is just gorgeous. I loved the humanity that O’Connor brought to the characters, the big ideas contained within a simple premise. The image of Manod, living a hard and dirty life, but dressed in vintage velvet and silk dresses, was gloriously offbeat. O’Connor is a worthy successor to writers like Anne Enright and Colm Toibin with a clarity and simplicity that belies the depth of her story.
A simple story, told through the eyes of 18 year old Manod, of a pair of anthropologists researching a book about disappearing communities, Whale Fall includes tantalising snippets of their research: songs, folklore, histories of the inhabitants. There are wonderful descriptions of the wild natural world that the islanders both love and battle against. This reminded me of The Colony by Audrey Magee and The Outrun by Amy Liptrot The situation on the island echoes wider colonialism: the patronising idea of the noble savage, the romanticisation of a simple life close to nature, the irony of the anthropologists who speak only one language feeling superior to islanders fluent in English and Welsh.

Whale Fall is a book I enjoyed and, like with many books I simply enjoy, I struggle to put into words just why. So this will probably just be a quick review!

The story follows Manod, who lives on a small, remote Welsh island. Two things happen at the start of the tale: one, the beaching of a whale, and two, the arrival of two English ethnographers who have come to document the island’s culture. It’s not hard to see where the plot might go from here.

O’Connor is very good at bringing this pre-WWII Welsh island to life, along with its inhabitants. It feels itself a little like, not an ethnography as the English visitors are writing, but a kind of peering into the lives of these characters. It’s only a snapshot, precipitated by the arrival of the whale/visitors (and we leave pretty much as they leave), but one that will stay with you.

Really the only reason I didn’t rate this higher than I did (3.5 stars, actually) was simply down to the fact that, while I enjoyed it, that’s all I felt reading it. It’s a very good book and many other readers will, I’m sure, love it more than me. For that reason, I would definitely recommend it.

Loved this book!

One of those books I literally could not put down. I loved the subtle ambiguity of the language and community.