This is a beautiful small book that packs a lot of emotion in. I enjoyed the nature writing and the description of the island, it was so easy to see it in my mind, I loved the main character Manod, she’s so strong and I was rooting for her the whole time. This book is an insight to island life and the communities that use to live there.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

After reading this novella, I feel I need to ruminate on it. There are layers of meaning here explored with pinpoint precise prose. It is really a spectacular novel.

Whale Fall asks us to contemplate tge impact of society on the individual, climate change, appropriation and isolation - both physical and emotional.

Manod is such a complex characte; she comes alive and bursts off the page.

The island setting is remote and the description captures this effortlessly. I feel this novel is driven by character and description rather than plot. This is not a criticism.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Whale Fall.

The story tells of a young girl, living with her younger sister and father in a remote island of the Welsh coast and looks at a year when two notable things happened in the lives of the islanders. Firstly, a whale was stranded on the beach and secondly, a couple of researchers from the mainland arrived to take notes on the way of life and folk traditions.
The book is set in 1938, and it was interesting to see how news of the impending world war took time to trickle down to the islanders.
Not a lot happens in this book, but it is interesting. historically to look at how people lived in isolated islands in the only 20th century in way that hadn’t changed for years . My one is novel was that the characters seemed rather flat and there wasn’t much character development within the novel which left me feeling that there was something missing , it’s a very short book and I was left at the end, wanting more.
The author has a clear easily read writing style which is highly visual. I found myself imagining the island setting right from the start. this is her first novel the author has a clear voice, and I will be looking out for her future writing.
I read an early copy of the noble on NetGalley UK the book is published in the UK on 25th of April 2024 by Pan MacMillan, Picador
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK Goodreads and my book blog, bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com, after publication, it will also appear on Amazon, UK

This novel is so atmospheric, the scenery and environment described are vivid, beautiful, often desolate, and feel like an additional character in the story.

Manod is a young, often naive and vulnerable young woman, living on an isolated Welsh island in the aftermath of WW1. A rare interaction with outsiders gives Manod the opportunity to share her story and herself, and to aspire to extend her boundaries.

This is beautifully written, melancholic, and touching.

This is an extremely atmospheric telling of island life and how the mainland and its ways appear to those who are unfamiliar with it - and how outsiders can take advantage of people when their way of life is different. Well told and poetic in style, a vivid story that I read in a day and felt was the perfect length for the story it was telling.

A short beautiful and thought provoking novel. I sat down to read it after lunch and emerged having finished it a few hours later.

Set at the end of the 1930s, Manod, her younger sister and father live on a small island 5 miles off the coast of Wales. At 18, clever and bilingual, Manod is facing a future in which she marries one of the few boys on the island or moves to the mainland as many others have. Her first person narrative is full of the beauty, isolation and hardships of island life, which two English visitors, ethnographers who arrive and employ Manod for pennies, plan to describe in a book. She gradually comes to see the fake romanticism of their approach and how she has been greatly deceived by their initial charm. One of them is a follower of Mosley and in this way Manod's story and that of the island, becomes entwined with the politics of the mainland and continent.

But none of this is laboured or obvious. Initially this appears to be a deceptively simple story, just as island life is initially entrancing when viewed with a superficial gloss which ignores the hardships and realities.

A book that will stay with me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy.

Seemingly random musings, memories and reflection is what hits you first when reading Whale Fall. Eventually, a story emerges when two anthroplogists visit this Welsh island and start observing the everyday life of the island folk. Manod having good English and Welsh, being a local young woman is offered employment by the couple to assist with translation. It becomes clear to Manod that the anthropologists want to record an idealised version of island life which both amuses and angers her. I am surprised, how easy Manod was with her virtue, bearing in mind the stock she was raised from and from what's written, she doesn't appear to enjoy it Anyway, she was spun a tale from Edward (one of the anthropologists) about getting her off the island . It's a dream for her which sadly would never be fulfilled by him.
If you have any vague interest in very small island communities, rotten whales and fisherfolk then this novel may be of interest. I thought the plot, when it eventually began, was obvious and therefore rather dull. The skittish musings lacked structure and substance. The novel was mercifully short however.

"It is as though the water of the body has spilled out of them to create the sea, so familiar are they with it."

Whale Fall is a stunning and atmospheric novel about a remote island off the coast of Wales in the late 1930s. It follows 18-year old Manod who is incredibly bright but constrained to the expectations of the community that she will eventually marry off. Manod lives a relatively quiet life with her lobster fisherman father and younger sister until some unexpected visitors appear on the beach: a washed up whale and shortly after, two English researches from Oxford University. Manod is employed to assist with their research, using her encyclopaedic knowledge of the island and sought after bilingual abilities. Their research represents many things to Manod, but most importantly it represents an opportunity to leave the island on her own terms.

I would have loved to have read more of Manod's story, and especially her future, but I did enjoy this. Elizabeth O'Connor is an incredibly compelling and talented writer and I can't wait to see what she does next. Thank you to Picador and netgalley for the ARC of this one!

What a beautiful evocation of life on a small Welsh island, the remoteness, the harsh living conditions, the struggle to make a living.

Visitors arrive. A whale is washed ashore provoking much interest and curiosity. Researchers intrude from the mainland, interviewing the residents, making assumptions and judging island life and culture according to criteria that are totally inappropriate.

This is a short novel but it packs in so much detail with hardly a wasted word. The landscape and characters come vividly to life from the very first page. At the end I was left wondering what next for Manod, so young but having already experienced so much.

This was incredible - how the author has managed to convey such a strong sense of character and place in this short of a book is beyond me.

I was absolutely swept up in Manod’s tale, from both the beauty of the author’s writing but also from the connection I felt to Manod. I didn’t want it to end, but the length of the book worked perfectly and fit the style of writing so well. I will be thinking about this island for a long time.

I am so excited to see what this author does in the future.

This will be compared to Audrey Magee’s excellent ‘The Colony’ a lot, which is really very high praise. Both novels detail life on a small island, disrupted by visitors from the mainland who seek to learn and ‘preserve’ the culture, - ‘The Colony’ in Ireland and ‘Whale Fall’ in Wales.

I found O’Connor’s prose very engaging - it’s subtle and not flashy, but really impressively builds a vivid picture of the inhabitants of the island. Our protagonist Manod longs for bigger things, but is kept in place by her duty to look after her sister and father. Manod is a believable and well-realised protagonist, and you feel her inner conflict, her slightly somber mood, in every page.

I think this is a really excellent novel, with a lot to say about culture and erasure. Incredibly restrained and never at risk of overstaying its welcome, this is a really impressive debut. 4.5 stars rounded down

Thank you to Pan MacMillan and Netgalley for the e-ARC

In the time just before WW2 two people go to a remote island to study the people and their traditions. Their arrogance, vanity and assumption of superiority particularly affects Manod who by being bi-lingual gets the task of translating their work.

It is a well crafted tale; scenery and people are beautifully described, as is frustration of the young people who wish to have some form of life beyond the confines of the island. Revel in the birds, sea and people of the island and enjoy this great book.

This book reminded me of 'The Colony' by Audrey Magee but I actually preferred this one - I found it lighter and more easily engaging.

We follow Manod, 18, who lives on a small island off Wales where the handful of inhabitants works as fishermen or tend to their cattle. A whale has died on the beach; two English anthropologists have arrived to study the island and the inhabitants. Manod becomes their assistant and interpreter. This is a very short novel but O'Connor is brilliant at making the reader feel anxious throughout, as Manod slowly understands that the two anthropologists - Edward and Joan - have their own motives for coming to study the islanders, and that being truthful or respectful of the inhabitants is not one of them. Her little sister Llivos, who collects animal bones and looks for puffin eggs off the cliffs, and refuses to speak English, knows it straight away. Manod takes longer to get there, to realise that she is being played by two outsiders who patronizingly marvel at the women of the island making butter, and obsessively photograph and record everything.

I really liked it. It was Wales but it could have been Ireland, or any small island off the coast of the British Isles. It was well written and took time to reveal itself.

Free copy received through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review; book to be published on 25 April 2024.

A short novel but so atmospheric and the author fully immersed me in island life and the remoteness of their way of life. The main character was so relatable, despite her life being so different to mine in the modern world. The nature writing was beautiful and it was a gripping read.

If you love literary short novels in the style of Claire Keegan, you will adore Whale Fall. It is the beautiful story of 18 year old Manod who lives on one of the many small islands off the coast of Wales in 1938.

Along with her lobster fisherman father and younger sister, the tiny population eke out an existence in the harsh climate almost seemingly in another time. But change and war is looming and in the modern world most of these tiny islands have long since been abandoned.

This is a slow, visual story about what it must have been like for young people so bound up with tradition and responsibility who yearn for change.
At only just over 200 pages, this won't take you long to read but will leave you with all the feels.

I was completely ignorant that there were small inhabited Islands in north Wales. I have been looking into them since reading Whale Fall, and there are nearly 100 islands in Wales!. I am now intrigued by the isolation of Islands such as Bardsley and the traditional way of life there as late as the 1930s - which are so beautifully described in the novel .
I love a book that is atmospheric, descriptive and provides an insight into an individual’s small and insignificant world. Manod‘s island and way of life is changing, and her desire for more is reflected in the gentle plot. She begins working for two researchers from Oxford, and can see the possibility of a life away from the Island and all that she knows. For me, Manod came alive on the page. I felt I knew her and wanted her to find the satisfaction and liberty she deserves.
Set against the bigger backdrop of a changing world, with the threat of war over the sea, this is an intriguing and thought provoking read. I recommend it and will be looking out for what this talented debut author writes next. I don’t hesitate in giving 5 stars for such an unexpectedly accomplished work of fiction.

A beautifully written short novel. Rare to come across such a competent debut novel.
Really transports you to this remote Welsh island. Atmospheric and evocative, it felt very real.
Impressive how much emotion and is packed into such a short piece of work. Appreciated seeing this small community through the character of Manod and all her complex feelings were expressed very well.
Gentle literary slice of life fiction isn’t really my thing. Picked this up to try something different and it was definitely worth a go.

This was a short book but plenty of emotion packed into it. Beautifully written and a lovely story.

Really impressive debut novel

Beautifully written short novel, although there are no great surprises in the story.

Perfect for reading in one sitting on a rainy winter afternoon!

This is a beautifully written novel about Manod, a Welsh girl living on a remote island with her father and sister. The world is on the brink of change as WW2 looms and Manod is ready to embrace a new life away from the confines of her home. A gentle and captivating debut which evokes a more innocent time.