The Broch

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,

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.

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.