Sweetland
For twelve generations the inhabitants of a remote island in Newfoundland have lived and died together. Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, they are facing resettlement, and each has been offered a generous compensation package to leave. But the money is offered with a proviso: everyone has to go.
But Moses Sweetland chooses to stay alone. Motivated in part by a sense of history and belonging, haunted by memories of the short and lonely time he spent away from his home as a younger man, and concerned that his somewhat eccentric great-nephew will wilt on the mainland, Moses refuses to leave. But in the face of determined, sometimes violent, opposition from his family and his friends, Sweetland…
MICHAEL CRUMMEY is the author of seven books of poetry and a collection of short stories, Flesh and Blood. He is also the author of the novels The Wreckage, a national bestseller and finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize; Galore, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel (Canada and Caribbean) and finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award; Sweetland, a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award; and The Innocents, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award. His most recent novel, The Adversary, was a #1 national bestseller. Michael Crummey lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.