LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE “Luminous.” —Jonathan Myerson, The Guardian “Vivid, thought-provoking.” —Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune In 1979, as violence erupts all over Ireland, two outsiders travel to a small island off the west coast in search of their own answers, despite what it may cost the islanders. It is the summer of 1979. An English painter travels to a small island off the west coast of Ireland. Mr. Lloyd takes the last leg by currach, though boats with engines are available and he doesn’t much like the sea. He wants the authentic experience, to be changed by this place, to let its quiet and light fill him, give him room to create. He doesn’t know that a Frenchman follows close behind. Jean-Pierre Masson has visited the island for many years, studying the language of those who make it their home. He is fiercely protective of their isolation, deems it essential to exploring his theories of language preservation and identity. But the people who live on this rock—three miles long and half a mile wide—have their own views on what is being recorded, what is being taken, and what ought to be given in return. Over the summer, each of them—from great-grandmother Bean Uí Fhloinn, to widowed Mairéad, to fifteen-year-old James, who is determined to avoid the life of a fisherman—will wrestle with their values and desires. Meanwhile, all over Ireland, violence is erupting. And there is blame enough to go around. An expertly woven portrait of character and place, a stirring investigation into yearning to find one’s way, and an unflinchingly political critique of the long, seething cost of imperialism, Audrey Magee’s The Colony is a novel that transports, that celebrates beauty and connection, and that reckons with the inevitable ruptures of independence.

The Colony was a rare novel in that our discussion about it was filled with disagreements about the motivations and sympathies we had for different characters, but all of us could see the alternate perspectives were supported by the story. Our conversation really centered on how the island's inhabitants were both using and being used by Lloyd and JP as the English and French men (respectively) came to the island for a summer to do their work. We all agree that the plot was very believable, but we debated exactly why anyone did what they did. Was Lloyd honest in his concern about James's safety or was he just jealous of James's talent? Was Mairead's posing for Lloyd an escape, an exploitation, or just another version of her fling with JP? Was JP any more ethical for trying to preserve the language if he's denying James's name and misrepresenting the family's connection to the English world? Magee does just a wonderful job creating a symbolically rich but powerfully vivid set of relationships and desires and it's to her credit that they don't reduce to a simple message of purity or exploitation or power. Magee is also a master of holding information until just the right moment, and the key reveals of Mairead's plans before her husband's death or Frances's sympathies for the IRA cause create a palpable sense of threat and tragedy that runs through the story and leaves you unsure of how everything will end. The Colony cuts between the story of the island and short descriptions of the violence of the Troubles, and both parts come together in an escalating sense of hostility and danger around all the characters. The book just surprises you again and again with what the characters want, how they are aligned, and what they chose to do or not do. Several of us commented that we have rarely read a book that gave so much complexity and agency to so many characters. It would have been so easy to make this a novel about the helpless victims of the island, but Magee makes the motivations of the family just as rich and conflicted as everyone. It's hard to stop saying good things about The Colony. It's a tight, well edited, and beautiful story that will leave you with even more questions about power relations and in what ways they can be navigated. We highly recommend The Colony to everyone; you will have your own take on it, but that's what makes the novel so good.