The Adversary

by Michael Crummey

From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Innocents , a dark, enthralling novel about love and its limitations, the corruption of power and the power of corruption.

In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos.
    That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms, each fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery, each seeking a measure of revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals further each year into vendettas and violence, the community is increasingly divided and even the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides, with devastating consequences.
    Through merciless seasons of uncertainty and want, through predatory storms and pandemics and marauding privateers, it is the human heart that reveals itself to be the most formidable and unpredictable adversary for each person drawn, inevitably and helplessly, into that endless feud.
    Compulsively readable and uncompromising, The Adversary is a pitch-perfect evocation of a lost time, and a shadowed mirror to our modern politics of grievance and retribution. It is Michael Crummey's finest novel to date.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canada, Historical, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2023

About the author

Born in Buchans, Newfoundland, Crummey grew up there and in Wabush, Labrador, where he moved with his family in the late 1970s. He went to university with no idea what to do with his life and, to make matters worse, started writing poems in his first year. Just before graduating with a BA in English he won the Gregory Power Poetry Award. First prize was three hundred dollars (big bucks back in 1987) and it gave him the mistaken impression there was money to be made in poetry.

He published a slender collection of poems called Arguments with Gravity in 1996, followed two years later by Hard Light. 1998 also saw the publication of a collection of short stories, Flesh and Blood, and Crummey's nomination for the Journey Prize.

Crummey's debut novel, River Thieves (2001) was a Canadian bestseller, winning the Thomas Head Raddall Award and the Winterset Award for Excellence in Newfoundland Writing. It was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the IMPAC Award. His second novel, The Wreckage (2005), was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award.

Galore was published in Canada in 2009. A national bestseller, it was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean), the Canadian Authors' Association Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award for fiction.

He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland with his wife and three step-kids.

Reviews

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book by this author.
During the first 25% I was impressed by his writing and storytelling skills, but after that I did struggle with feeling engaged.
The story is gloomy and there are some heartbreaking moments.
I did not know if the setting was late 18th century or early 19th.
The characters are interesting but unfortunately there isn’t a single perspective, which caused me to feel completely indifferent to the situations.
While reading I couldn’t put a finger why it failed to capture my full attention until I realized the lack of POV.
Some critics called this work a “masterpiece”, so please, don’t mind me.
Perhaps I should have read “The Innocents” before this one.
I do own 4 more books by this author, which I do intend to read.

e-book (Kobo): 293 pages (default), 90k words

PS.: I have decided to read The Innocents next.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early 19th century, Newfoundland, a fishing community that is lorded over by two reigning and divided factions. A brother, Abe Strapp, and his sister, known as the Widow, have a sordid, seething rivalry. The Widow is measured, calculating, secretive; Abe is savage and obscene, a walking Id. Cutthroat siblings with the same ulterior motive---power. How it plays out on this sea port is a combination of strategy, luck, and the whims of weather and plague. Atmospheric AF, ribald, ghastly, wildly entertaining. I never had so much fun being horrified and absorbed at equal measure.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

May 25, 2025 Update Michael Crummey and The Adversary are now the winners of the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. Read further information here.

MC is Canada's CM
Review of the Knopf Canada hardcover (September 26, 2023) with reference to the simultaneously released Knopf Canada Kindle eBook.

“The whole constitution of the town,” the petition said, “is corrupted into debauchery, drunkenness, whoring, gaming, profuseness, and the most foolish, sottish prodigality imaginable.”

OK, we didn't go onto Goodreads in order to be shy about our opinions right? So when I say that Michael Crummey's The Adversary reminded me of no less than Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West (1985), just bear with me for a bit.

The Adversary takes place in the fictional Newfoundland fishing port town of Mockbeggar*, sometime in the early 19th century as near as I can figure**. The main business rivals of the town are the Caines and the Strapp families. The specific main adversaries are the Widow Caines and Abe Strapp. The book title alludes to the frequent Biblical euphemism of the "Adversary" used in place of Satan. The human adversaries and their proxies work to undermine each other's businesses and lives with the other people of the town as pawns.

There is a relentless, inexorable pace to the proceedings which leads to the community being on the verge of decimation through plagues, starvation, fires and the often random deaths from murder or disease. The life is bleak and brutal even if at the end there is a rather slim glimmer of the "meek inheriting the earth."

I don't want to go into too much spoilerish detail, but I found The Adversary to be a remorseless and unforgettable read. It is somewhat of an expanded universe to the author's previous book The Innocents (2019) with several characters reappearing in various major and minor roles or cameo mentions.

Some of the flavour of the book is captured in my status updates (read below the review) or my Kindle highlights. Although I read the hardcover, there were so many quotable passages that I used the benefit of a Kindle Deal of the Day from December 16, 2023 to save myself the work of transcription.

Footnote
* Mockbeggar Plantation is a historic site near modern day Bonavista, Newfoundland.
** There is a reference to an American vessel being taken by the British Navy, presumably during the War of 1812. One old man is said to have lived in the town since the time of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).

Soundtrack

There isn't a specific song, but the album title Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985) by the Pogues fits this book perfectly. Listen to the entire album at this YouTube playlist.

Trivia and Links
Read about some of the historical background to The Adversary at Michael Crummey’s Grim but Compelling Historical Novel by Eric Volmers, Timmins Daily Press, October 5, 2023.

NOTE: NEWFOUNDLAND DICTIONARY LINK NOT CURRENTLY WORKING, BUT SEE BELOW The author acknowledges the use of G.M. Story's Dictionary of Newfoundland English (1982) in his Afterword. If you don't have access to that physical book, you may be able to find the definition of some words used in The Adversary at the dictionary's Online Version. For instance, the definition of "livyer" is here.

Alternative Dictionary
Some of the Newfoundland dialect words are defined at the online version of the Canadian Encyclopedia so you can try to search for definitions there. For instance, the definition of "livyer" is here.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

“God alone ordains the state of things,” he said.
The Widow shook her head. “O fools learn sense,” she said.
The Beadle flinched at those words, at the feculent gall of the woman to speak down to him with scripture. He said, “An adversary there shall be even round about the land. And he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.”
“The Book of Amos?” the Widow asked and he nodded. “Am I the adversary, Mr. Clinch? Or would that be you?”
“We shall have to wait and see,” he said.

Set in the same timeframe (late eighteenth-century) and along the same stretch of Newfoundland’s northern coast as The Innocents (the Best siblings from that novel are referenced a few times here), The Adversary trains its focus onto those few who knew wealth and power in the isolated fishing port of Mockbeggar (to wit: we immediately meet the Mr. Strapp to whom the Best orphans were indebted). With a struggle for dominance at play between two rival operations — and with gender, class, and race imposing their own pressures — this gritty historical fiction is really the story of how the whims, egotism, and greed of those at the top translates into helpless misery for the working class. Plus ça change. Once again, Michael Crummey has brought breathing life into his characters and setting — with the sensibilities of a poet, his word choices are always evocative without being florid — and while his powerseekers are thoroughly unlikeable, it’s the little people caught in the crossfire that give the reader someone to root for. I was absolutely captivated by the storytelling here — from the sentences to the overall story arc — and I loved the whole thing. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

In the days after the killing, several men took young Solemn Lambe aside to advise him against doing anything rash to avenge Dallen’s death. Abe Strapp was best left to God’s judgement, they said. Solemn was not quite twelve and the notion of God’s judgement was too hypothetical to offer comfort. You won’t be helping anyone if you winds up dead like your father, people insisted. As if they wanted to make the boy complicit in their own infuriating helplessness.

“Infuriating helplessness” is the abiding atmosphere in Mockbeggar: Left to the whims of climate, disease, unreliable cod stocks, and marauding privateers, those trying to eke out a living on this fogbound stretch of rock can hardly keep their families fed at the best of times. Layer on the companies who hold everyone in debt — with the power of the Church and State backing their interests — and it’s a wonder anyone survived this life at all. But it’s in the small moments of resistance — the love between youngsters and newfound friends, the Quakers who refuse to meet violence with violence, the outsiders unafraid to stand up to petty tyranny — that grace may be found. Even so: the innocents may find themselves but pawns in the inscrutable games of their local gods.

She lifted her head to look away from that feeling and caught sight of the mirror above the fireplace, the shattered glass reflecting her back in slivers that almost adhered, the figure there riven and distorted and still undeniably herself. It made her think her instincts had been right all along — the world agitated against coherence, against concord, and the truest portrait a person could manage was fragmentary, incomplete.

I’ve tried to avoid spoilers with the overall plot (which was compelling and surprising), but I have to say that it was in the details that Crummey most engaged me: the disinterment of the Pilgrim, the horrific game of “mumble the sparrow”, the impenetrable slang of the ark ruffians; rough scenes told in the voice of a poet go down smoothly. And I want to end by noting that I was delighted to make the connection between The Adversary and The Innocents and would happily read anything else Crummey wants to set in this world.

[Jan Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Crummey is a word magician. No matter how closely I think I'm paying attention, at some point I'm slack-jawed to find I've been tricked into another realm, my defenses taken down while I was watching but not noticing, my heart and sensibilities left vulnerable again.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this down - what a writer! Crummey’s ‘Sweetland” is one of my all-time favorites and this is almost as good. You have to love a writer who gives a nod to “A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongues” and “Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing” in his acknowledgments.

This is a dark book, but wickedly funny too. If you are sensitive to deeply imaginative cussing, florid descriptions of bodily functions and the worst impulses of human nature, this may not be for you. There is a male and female protagonist in this story and the female reminds me a bit of Ron Rash’s Serena.

If you read and enjoyed “Serena,” I am guessing this book will grab you. A 4.5 for me, rounding up for a great story well told.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever read Michael Crummey’s novels, you know you can expect a few things: a dark, ambiance-rich Newfoundland setting, quirky and superbly crafted characters, and stunningly written prose. In The Adversary, he outdoes himself. This is his best book yet.

Set in a small fishing village called Mockbeggar in the 18th century, there are really three adversaries here. One is Abe Strapp, a thoroughly immoral and corrupt dispenser of justice (who strongly resembles a certain political figure, which I believe is deliberate). The other: Abe’s older sister, the Widow Caines, a Quaker who is distinguished by her pipe and the donning of her dead husband’s clothing, her pet crow, and her sharp tongue. To say they despise each other is putting it mildly. The third person, The Anglican, holier-than-thou Beadle, who has yoked himself to Abe Strapp.

Don't expect any “likable” characters or redemption here. This is a series of offenses and counter-offenses, with vindictive and yet riveting characters, determined to triumph in controlling Caines Mercantile, uncaring about the wreckage they leave in their wake.

The novel has plenty to keep readers glued to the page: a sibling relationship that gives new meaning to dysfunction, invading marauders, Abe’s depraved brothel, scalding, amputations, public whippings, devastating storms, hypocritical religious leaders, a pandemic, and more. Yes, it’s a dark tale that focuses on corruption and ruthlessness. But Michael Crummey knows how to milk some of the scenes for entertainment. Think of the old evening soap opera Dallas. This is what you get: villainous characters who simultaneously fascinate and repel the reader. It is also a cautionary tale on power dynamics, relevant for today.

I loved this novel and couldn���t tear myself away from it. I owe thanks to BookBrowse, Doubleday, and NetGalley for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical fiction set in a Newfoundland outport in the late 1700s revisits the same time and place as Crummey’s remarkable preceding novel, The Innocents. It is not for the faint of heart in its depiction of the brutal struggle between the two wealthiest merchants of the area to gain the ascendancy. Their power is virtually absolute over the locals (whose impoverished lives are indeed nasty, brutish and short), and in their unflagging focus on besting each other, they are entirely unconcerned about the devastation and damage inflicted on those around them. This book was compulsively readable in its portrayal of larger-than-life characters locked in a mortal struggle. Oh, did I mention that they are siblings? And, oh dang, I’ve neglected to say they’re brother and sister, haven’t I? I wanted to admire the sister, who was a couple of centuries ahead of her time. Intelligent and capable, educated in running her father’s business in spite of the strong objections of his manager, adopting male dress to the shock of scandalized locals, only to lose all to her oafish younger brother upon her father’s death. But she just couldn’t be liked, as she was even more ruthless and terrible than her disgusting brother. A brilliant book without anyone to like, as the tragedy unfurls like a slow-motion trainwreck.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

I love the reassuring feeling of being in the hands of a master storyteller, and Michael Crummey is definitely an outstanding one.

The Adversary tells the epic story of the rivalry between an incompetent, cruel and privileged brother (think Trump) and his brilliant, scheming sister, both vying for control over a 19th century Newfoundland trading post after their powerful father dies.

The opening scene, a marriage ceremony going off the rails, is fantastic and immediately creates a strong sense of place. The larger-than-life characters and the descriptions of life in the isolated trading post are so vivid that I felt completely transported.

I didn't know this writer (but some GR-friends warmly recommended him, thanks!), and often felt like I was reading a late 20th century sweeping historical novel, wondering if/why we don't see much of those anymore.

[C.A. Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Michael Crummey is one of my favorite authors. Every sentence from the man is balladry. Raw but refined. Creative and cool. This newest work from the great man is no exception.

However...

The plot of The Adversary pales in comparison to Sweetland or The Innocents. In fact, for the better part of the story, there is an absence of plot. The Adversary is billed as a feuding tale, but it's more a series of vignettes depicting the harshness of Quaker life in Newfoundland circa 1800.

Starvation, plague, pirate invasions, frost bite...these hapless Quakers cannot catch a break. As if their suffering isn't enough, a brother and sister occasionally attempt to cause each other financial or personal harm - and the inhabitants of Mockbeggar get caught up in their wake.

Having found the story less moving that Crummey's last titles, I still really enjoyed the reading - I mean, the performance. Reader Mary Lewis does an outstanding job with the various dialects and old-world vocabulary from Crummey's characters, who might have been named by Dickens (The Bitch-Bear, the Duke of Limbs, Terrified, The Widow...).

I'll be first in line to read this author's next book, but, for me, The Adversary is not quite on par with the modern classics, Sweetland and The Innocents.

[Albert Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rocked me like a hurricane. Absolutely deserved the Dublin Prize. Monumental piece of CanLit... but think it will take much longer to catch on here because Ontarions tend to be slow on the literature coming out of the East (and the West and North for that matter). Yeah it's about the past but it's not one of those slow boring weepy things we've always been subjected to. It's hilariously funny and has something to say about the brutalities our state and way of life have always inflicted on us, even though it could very easily be another way.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece.

[Lucy Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Adversary by Michael Crummey is yet another truly masterful work by one of our country’s most impressive writers. The story itself concerns Abe Strapp, an egotistical tyrant in a small fishing town and the power he wields over those less fortunate. Strapp’s self-serving conflicts include a longstanding skirmish with his major competitor, who is also his much brighter and more successful sister, the Widow Caines. The main character’s malevolence, criminality and cruelty are without precedent in the world the author has constructed, a persona so villainous that one wonders how Crummey could fabricate such a monster. Almost as treacherous are his debased side-kicks who run his errands and execute his cruel schemes throughout the community. And it is in these extremes that the beauty of Crummey’s work becomes manifest. Although the yarn is a spellbinding tale, it suddenly reveals itself to be a commentary on recent events in the effects of the political sphere on the social one. The frightening question thus raised becomes: what happens to a civilized society when a narcissistic egomaniac takes charge, along with his sadistic accomplices, and has no one to impose any checks or balances? Compelling, thought-provoking and beautifully written, The Adversary stands on its own as a wonderful example of the author’s art, yet is so much more. Highly recommended.

[Patrycja Krotowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stary dobry Crummey, tylko w nieco innym opakowaniu. Mam sentyment do wcześniejszych wydań powieści Michaela Crummeya, tych bladych nastrojowych szarości od Wiatru od Morza, zresztą w ogóle mam sentyment do tego autora, i ostatnia jego powieść "Nieprzyjaciel", wydana przez Świat Książki, trzyma poziom: i autorsko, i translatorsko.

"Nieprzyjaciel" jest powieścią typowo crummeyowską - Nowa Fundlandia, wyrazisty i brutalny klimat, gęsta atmosfera, bezkompromisowość, plastyczny styl, surowe warunki życia i rywalizacja. Cele jednostki a koszty społeczności. Izolacja. Przekraczanie granic moralności. Walka o przetrwanie - to dosłowne, i to ekonomiczne. W "Nieprzyjacielu" akcja toczy się w odległej nadbrzeżnej społeczności, Mockbeggar, w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku, bohaterowie noszą w sobie ślady miejsca, z którego pochodzą, są skonfliktowani i moralnie ambiwalentni. I jest wśród nich pewna dominująca dwójka, bez spojlerów. Ich indywidualne pragnienie władzy napędza konflikt między nimi, który to konflikt z kolei napędza narrację powieści.

Nie jest to łatwa powieść, taka trochę w stylu "Dostatku", postaci jest sporo, okoliczności dość niejednoznaczne, a problemy też nie do końca dzisiejsze, chociaż impulsy natury ludzkiej jednak od wieków takie same. Aaa i można w "Nieprzyjacielu" doszukiwać się komentarza na temat wpływu sfery politycznej na sferę społeczną. Tak tylko delikatnie sugeruję, kojarzymy takich ludzi z osobowością wielkościową dochodzących do władzy, co nie?

Stary dobry Crummey. Bardzo dobra rzecz!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how to rate this book. It is incredibly well written, and the plot really moves. The characters are by and large abhorrent, the theme so dark and violent, that it was more like a train wreck that I couldn’t look away from than a compelling read. It probably deserves more than 3 stars…

[Becky Loader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I consider myself a fairly sophisticated reader.
I have no idea what this book was about.

[Cori Macphee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever eavesdropped on the table next to you at a bar in bougie neighbourhood and wanted, at some point, to turn to the people and yell “you are both such assholes!” This is the book form of that. Everyone is either taking advantage of others or being taken advantage off. Kept hoping for redemption instead it nudged my misanthropy a little further along.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tale of two of the worst siblings you'll ever read about. A sibling rivalry so intense no one in their town was untouched by their hatred and intent to undermine each other. No one person came away unscathed by their violence and hatred. A disturbing story for sure.

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Crummey has again delivered a fantastic piece of Newfoundland historical fiction. I really enjoyed some of word choices common to Newfoundland (e.g. livyers) and I had no idea there was ever a Quaker presence here. I’m a little confused by the deer hunting, but I guess that was caribou?

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional piece of historical fiction and definitely one of my favourite reads for 2025.

Set in 18th century Newfoundland, The Adversary follows a small coastal community headed up by two rival siblings - the vulgar Abe Strapp, and the cunning Widow. Neither one will let anything, or anyone, get in the way of taking the other down.

The Adversary grabs you from the first chapter and propels you along - each chapter a step closer or a step back in one of the sibling's plans - whether it be the arrival of a plague, or a band of rowdy sailors washed up ashore with plans of their own. It's grim, gruesome, violent, with a prevailing atmosphere of never-ending darkness, but there is also great humour here too - with some of the best swear words you'll ever read!

It is said to be a companion piece to Crummey's previous novel, The Innocents, and some of the same characters do crop up here, but you absolutely don't need to have read one before the other. I do think this is the better novel though.

Thrilling, clever, and ultimately stunning, I just loved it!

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Crummey novel in fairly quick succession, and he's clearly a terrific prose stylist with a real skill of creating atmosphere. Like Sweetland, The Adversary is set in Newfoundland, but it takes place around 1800. A brother and sister are basically out to get each other as they vie for power and commercial success in a small fishing town.

Life in that time and place was not easy--the book provides its share of death from disease, shipwreck, malnourishment, childbirth, storms, and violence. I loved the scenes describing daily life and experiences there.

The word "masterpiece" has been used a lot in published reviews of this book, but I found the plot kind of meandering and occasionally heavy handed (we get it! Abe is odious and the Widow Caine is a schemer!), and the ending rushed.

The audiobook was very well done, with narrator Mary Lewis taking on many different accents and dialects. I thought she was great.

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s “Succession” but set in Newfoundland in the 18th century!

“The Adversary”, by Michael Crummey, has all the delicious ingredients of a dysfunctional family feud.

A brother and sister vie for supremacy in a harbor village in Newfoundland. The sister is shrewd and ruthless, the brother is infantile and ruthless, and they are both prone to violence.
Surrounded by sycophants and/or ruffians whose volatile allegiances reveal their own self-serving ambitions, the siblings go to war.

“The Adversary” is full of beautifully rendered characters, and marvelous details about life on the remote Atlantic island.

Crummey writing is wonderfully evocative, and yes – often humorous. He gives the reader all the shocks, the twists, the dirty tricks, debauchery, extreme violence, and tragedy, that will keep you turning the pages to arrive at the climactic ending.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great storytelling as one expects of Crummey. Abe Strapp and Widow Caines are siblings who hate one another. Between them, they own everything worth owning in and around an outport in Northern Newfoundland. Adversaries all their lives, retribution comes at last.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niewielka osada o wymownej nazwie Mockbeggar położona na północnym krańcu Nowej Fundlandii stanowi kulisy tej powieści. Abe Strapp i Wdowa Caines trzęsą życiem w tym miejscu. To rodzeństwo, które ze sobą walczy. Abe odziedziczył biznes po ojcu i dąży do powiększenia fortuny i wpływów. Zarazem jest odrażającym typem, który nie boi się nikogo i za nic ma sobie prawo.

Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

For quality, I could easily give this five stars. He is a magnificent writer. It is a dark story, though, with very few redeeming characters. Realistic, unfortunately. I wouldn’t say this was an enjoyable read, but I expect it will be memorable.

I loved the tie-ins to The Innocents, which I read and enjoyed more a bit ago.

Warning: there are brief mentions of animals being killed in two instances in the book.

[Vittoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love that Michael Crummey

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Brittany Zeoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

I read 1/3 of this book before giving up.

I wanted to read this book based on the description. This book is well written. You can tell the author respects the craft of writing. The writing is descriptive and the story is well paced.

My interest in reading this had nothing to do with the writing style or storytelling, which as I said are good. The reason is put this down was because at 30% in I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to root for. I expected corrupt characters, but it didn’t seem like any of the key players in the book had any redeeming qualities and nothing they were working to overcome that I also cared about as a reader.

I think the characters are well written. I was able to get a sense of who they were, I just didn’t care about their own self interest. This was my first book by this author, and after reading other reviews on this book I can tell that I’m not alone in not liking the characters and that is probably the point of this book. I’m that way this book is well done but just too serious and dark for me.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Crummey at his best. All about siblings with a powerful rivalry between brother and sister set in a harbour village, in 18th century Newfoundland. It is one of his most evocative work to date. Pirates, ruffians, loyalties ever changing by virtue of who has the money to employ and feed them. There is twists and turns, but also violence and tragedy. I am continually amazed at this extremely talented wonderful Canadian writer and how he never disappoints me.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a BRUTAL, violent, bleak book, but it also has a lot of beauty. A writer this talented writing about the Newfoundland coast would have to go out of their way NOT to have some beauty in there. But yeah, an incredible amount of horrific stuff happens amid all the landscape (the less said about the sparrow game, the better).