Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Light below the water

Exploring art and witchcraft
by
June 2022, no. 443

The Colony by Audrey Magee

Faber, $29.99 pb, 376 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

Raven Books, $29.99 pb, 312 pp

Light below the water

Exploring art and witchcraft
by
June 2022, no. 443

Two new novels probe national myths and histories, offering insights into the political and religious forces that continue to shape contemporary conflicts.

Set during the height of the Troubles, Irish writer Audrey Magee’s The Colony begins with English artist Mr Lloyd travelling to a remote island off Ireland’s west coast, ‘a rock cutting into the ocean, splitting, splintering, shredding the water’. Lloyd insists on being ferried across by currach rather than by the motorboat the islanders themselves use when crossing to the mainland, a requirement that immediately foregrounds how much of Lloyd’s conception of the island is bound up in romanticised notions of the bleak Irish landscape and the hardy individuals – twelve families in all – who inhabit it.

Diane Stubbings reviews 'The Colony' by Audrey Magee and 'The Leviathan' by Rosie Andrews

The Colony

by Audrey Magee

Faber, $29.99 pb, 376 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

The Leviathan

by Rosie Andrews

Raven Books, $29.99 pb, 312 pp

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.