Synopses & Reviews
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 curragh, though boats with engines are available and he doesn't much like the sea. But 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. Masson has visited the island for many years, studying their language. He is fiercely protective of their isolation; it is essential to exploring his theories of language preservation and identity.
But the people who live on this rock — three miles wide and half a mile long — 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 U Fhloinn, to widowed Mair ad, to fifteen-year-old James, who is determined to avoid the life of a fisherman — will wrestle with their own 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 own 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.
Review
"[A] panorama of lyrical beauty, effort, and complex connection . . . A finely wrought, multilayered tale with the lucidity of a parable." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Review
"A careful interrogation, The Colony expertly explores the mutability of language and art, the triumphs and failures inherent to the process of creation and preservation." Raven Leilani, author of Luster
Review
"The Colony is a brilliant novel, a subtle and thoughtfully calibrated commentary about the nature and balance of power between classes, cultures, genders. There is violence here, but, most impressively, Audrey Magee captures that more insidious cruelty — the kind masked as protection, as manners." Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes
Review
"The Colony is a novel of ideas . . . Magee builds her world with a rich particularity . . . [anchored] in the brutal political realities of Ireland during a fateful summer, while acting as a reminder of imperialism's broader legacy around the world." Kathryn Hughes, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Audrey Magee is the author of The Undertaking, a novel short-listed for several prizes and honors, including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Irish Book Award, and France's Festival du premier roman. She lives in Wicklow, Ireland.