About the Author:
Margaret Elphinstone is the author of eight novels, including The Incomer (1987), A Sparrow's Flight (1989), Islanders (1994), The Sea Road (2000), Hy Brasil (2002), Voyageurs (2003) and Light (2006). She has also had published short stories, poetry and two books on organic gardening. Her next book, And Some There Be, will be published by Canongate in 2009. She lives in Glasgow and teaches at the University of Strathclyde.
From Booklist:
Sisters-in-law Lucy and Diya have three children between them and live on the remote island of Ellan Bride off the Isle of Man in 1831. Ever since Diya's husband died, Lucy has lit the lamps and polished the reflectors in the lighthouse, whose beam saves an untold number of sailors' lives every year in the treacherous seawaters. But new technology has brought Archie Buchanan, an ambitious surveyor, and his hardworking assistant, Ben Groat, to the tiny island to scope out a project for building a new lighthouse. The women are frightened about what the change means for their future, while the children, at first nervous in the presence of strangers, are intrigued by their equipment and far-ranging conversations, which provide glimpses of the outside world. Then Diya's strong-willed daughter provokes a crisis by attempting to lead Archie astray on a remote footpath. In this moving depiction of a close-knit family learning to navigate overwhelming change, Elphinstone also brings alive the stark beauty of the island through her graceful, finely detailed descriptions of the wildlife and landscape. Joanne Wilkinson
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