The Fisherman's Gift by Julia R Kelly
3/18/25; 368 pages
Simon & Schuster
The Fisherman's Gift by Julia R Kelly is a highly recommended historical domestic drama full of heartbreak set in Skerry, a remote Scottish fishing village.
In 1900 Dorothy Aitken is a schoolmistress
in Skerry when a child is found washed ashore by the fisherman Joseph and circumstances result in Dorothy caring for him. She has lived there for years and all the villagers know of the heartbreaking tragedy she experienced years earlier when her young son Moses went missing and was presumed lost in the sea. Only his boot was found.
When Dorothy first arrived she struggled to be accepted in the
close-knit gossipy village, which resulted in her setting herself apart
from others. All those years ago she and Joseph fell in love but a local
woman, Agnes, wanted Joseph for herself and made that clear. Meanwhile
tongues were wagging as the gossip swirled around everything.
The past and the present collide in this even paced atmospheric historical tale of love, guilt, loss, grief, secrets, and disappointment. The narrative follows two timelines, the current action and years ago when Dorothy fell in love with Joseph. The plot unfolds through the characters of Dorothy, Agnes, Joseph, William, and other Skerry residents.
The writing is really quite lovely in this literary historical tale.
Normally I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but the descriptive
passages and the care with which the characters were developed make this
special. The characters are all portrayed as realistic people, full of
flaws and failings and the world they are living in is equally dismal in
many ways. Everyone has their own burdens, struggles, and secrets
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