The Islander

by Allan Campbell McLean

Collins, 1962, hardcover, dust jacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, foxing to fore edges, dust jacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, chipping, tears and small parts missing, re-enforced with tape in some places  (see photographs)

"The islander is Niall, a boy seen growing into a man; the island, Skye – not the tourist’s Skye of romantic legend but the home of the Gaelic speaking crofters who wrest a meagre living from a harsh land.  Into this remote community, with its close circle of familiar figures – Niall’s deeply sympathetic family and the highly individual elders of the township – intrude sudden death and the menacing enquiries of the police.  Just as alien and threatening to Niall is the arrival of the dead man’s heir, a black hatted insurance agent from the city that has swallowed so many of his contemporaries.  So, develops the conflict between the values of the island and of the outside world which underlies Niall’s emergence into manhood; an emergence made under the impact of death, the painful dissolution of his family and a slowly awakening love.  It is a conflict exemplified by his changing relationship with his swashbuckling elder brother Ruairidh, and Catriona whose tantalising reappearances from city life provoke near disaster, culminating in the gripping tragi-comedy of a memorable Games Day.”