The Colony: Audrey Magee

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I listened to the audiobook masterfully narrated by Stephen Hogan and I did not encounters the punctuation and paragraphing issues some others discussed. We know, surely, that the violence inherent in colonisation operates in and affects both the personal and public spheres? I read two longlisted books written by an Irish author back to back, which was accidental but also welcomed. As the name suggests, the author tries to show the damage of Colonialism by choosing the small island as a symbol.

in the story itself, where one character's perspective is not shared by another's, over, and over, and over again. Perhaps this is why, in spite of its minor flaws and oddities, it makes an ultimately satisfying shape in the mind, and creates a mood that lingers discomfitingly after the final page is turned.And the frenchman JP masson, a linguist who is working on a study about how the Irish language has been decimated and the threats it faces, especially from the English. The author is also particularly dexterous in switching from interior monologue immediately and seamlessly to dialogue or to another character’s interior - with the two streams blending seamlessly together. And Magee’s setting is traditionally remote, an Atlantic island off Ireland’s west coast, three miles long, with its 1979 population now down to double figures. James somehow escaped me then, his level of sophistication regarding life in general, and especially regarding everything related to art, far outstripping my own—though this West of Ireland girl has been learning scraps of art history and art technique throughout her life.

This works as both historical fiction and as an exploration of an enduringly thorny topic, and I loved the whole thing. He promises, for example, to respect the islanders’ wishes that he not paint them, but this doesn’t last. Financial Times'A vivid and memorable book about art, land and language, love and sex, youth and age. I put off reading this novel for a long time, and I was yet again rewarded after deciding to read it or rather listen to it. Lloyd nurtures the artistic ambitions of her teenaged son James, absorbing and exploiting his painted images, as the pupil quickly surpasses his master's achievements.In between chapters, like a radio bulletin, appear the murders that take place during this time in the north of Ireland. The Colony is set during that Summer on a remote Gaelic speaking island when Earl Mountbatten and others were blown up and sectarian assassinations or attempts took place almost daily.

These parts really hit home for me - I finished a passage one morning then walked past the place where the murder had taken place. James' father, uncle and grandfather were fishermen and have drowned, but these dead men keep haunting the family and the book: They are a lost past the women can't break free from.My intuition tells me that I need to step well back to see it clearly, that only time and distance will allow the patterns to make sense.