There is something wonderful about a book that feels comfortable — not that it doesn’t challenge a reader, but it feels comfortable. Timeless, even, though the book itself does hint at being set in a time period. This is how I came into The View from Errisbeg by Sheila Graham-Smith: a beautifully written, quiet, engaging story, and one that immediately felt like a favourite sweater wrapping around me. This metaphor may be a leap too much, but trust me, it’s one of the highest compliments I can give to a novel. It was a comforting, enjoyable read.
A beautifully written, quiet, engaging story, and one that immediately felt like a favourite sweater wrapping around me.
Split into two intersecting narratives, The View from Errisbeg takes place over just under a week, in February, in Dublin and Hastings. In Dublin, editor Katherine Bartley and associate editor Hugh Murphy puzzle over a poetry manuscript from writer Walter O’Flaherty, suspecting it to be fraudulent somehow. Their sleuthing leads to a sad and more nuanced ending than they expected. Meanwhile, Walter himself is staying at a bed-and-breakfast in Hastings, falling apart and crashing down a path of self-destruction, populated by the characters of Hastings: John, the proprietor of the inn, whose memory is starting to fail; Grace, his daughter-in-law, grieving and with nowhere else to go; and Tatty, the remaining member of the inn staff, an odd duck if there ever was one. O’Flaherty spends his days with them, falling into their world, plotting to seduce Grace, and careening toward disaster.
The View from Errisbeg, despite all of this, is a mediation on grief and memory, and their transformative, reality-distorting ways. Whose version of the story is right? Does it matter if the details don’t line up? Each character is wandering on a lonely journey, strangely isolated from the others around them. Who are we, and how do we get to where we’re supposed to be? A lovely novel, and one I really enjoyed spending time with.
Sheil Graham-Smith was born into a military family in New Brunswick, Canada. Life’s journey has taken her to many places, notably Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States. Now she has returned to Atlantic Canada where she lives in rural Nova Scotia.
Sheila is a voracious reader and continues to write and, more recently, blog about writing. The View From Errisbeg is her first published novel, her second is expected soon, while a third is underway.
Publisher: Askance Publishing (July 5, 2024)
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-778225-08-6
Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.
