Whale Fall by by Elizabeth O'Connor

“It felt as though something was circling us, waiting to land against the shore.”

-Whale Fall, Elizabeth O’Connor

I loved this book for its complexity, simplicity, and depth. Whale Fall reminded me of Claire Keegan’s Foster where the language and settings are straightforward, yet carry so much weight.

Whale Fall is set in 1938 on a remote Welsh island, where the main character, 18-year-old Manod lives with her father and younger sister. A whale beaches on the small island, and this coincides with the arrival of two English ethnographers who want to research the cultural life of the island’s small community.

Manod, who’s 18, wants more for herself beyond life on the small island, and the arrival of these ethnographers offers her a sense of hope. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but some of the themes were painfully familiar: foreign exploitation and the exoticization of a local culture, a longing to explore beyond the bounds of one’s home, and good old heartbreak. I have also never read a novel that explores the relationship between the English and the Welsh, so Whale Fall was quite eye-opening in that sense.