It's 1916 and Word War 1 is in it's middle stages. On the small Scottish island of Lewis in the village of Stornaway, the young men have enlisted to go to the battlefields of France to fight the attacking German army.

In the late 20th century many years later, a young Channel 4(UK TV channel) reporter asks the one lone survivour of that time what it had been like and how he felt at missing his family and friends. What she finds out is more than just a book of poems written by a handsome young man and the rememberings of a man in his late 90s, but instead a very real love story that tells of two loves, one of them just a sudden flash in the pan and the other being a love of tears and torment for the two young lovers.

I loved the characters, they were so life like that I swear it's like the author was there, even though she wasn't. Mairi herself is beautifully well written and shows a very strong and stubborn spirit that you fall in love with as soon as her early years are explained.

Calum is another amazing character, he's richly written with a tormented soul and a love that makes him yearn for Mairi, even when she becomes pregnant with Iain Murray's child, he never stops loving her. All the characters are great, I mean that, they are all wonderful to read about.

There was the scenes set in the late 20th century that while good, didn't really draw me in like the wonderful parts of the book set in the early 20th century. Maybe I just liked the history more than the idea of reading in the modern age I guess.

Oddly enough, I wanted to cry. The ending of the book is really tear jerking and can have you either crying or going misty eyed. I won't say though, you have to read for yourself.

Sad, but a little hopeful for me and fiancee's relationship, maybe there's a chance of love in our society after all.

Lives in the Black Isles of Scotland, not too far from where I live actually. From what I read of her small bio, she mostly writes poetry so this must be her first novel. If this is what her novels are going to be like in the future then I'm awaiting her next book.

It's such a beautiful story with rich and colourful characters, plus the uses of the Scottish accent, in fact it uses four different Scottish accents in a very nice way, giving the characters a much nicer home feeling, at least for me since I'm Scottish.

The Scottish accent can be confusing for non-Scots and anyone who can't understand the language. It took me a while because I've rejected, until last year anyway, my Scottish roots. It also uses the older Gaelic language in parts as well, so it can be confusing.

When I picked this book up, I was drawn to it by the small picture of a young woman who looks oddly familar to me, I'm sure I've seen her before. I wasn't sure what the book might be like till I started reading and I was hooked from the first sentence. I never expected to enjoy a book that has a language I'm slowly learning to speak, I was actually feeling a part of the story at points, it was so engrossing!

I recommend this book, really, I fully recommend it, not just because it's Scottish, but because it's a beautiful story about real life love and about our inner truths. I'm done, as they say in the Gaelic tongue-beannachd leat-It means farewell, adieu. What a read.

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Created Jun 20, 2003 at 6:15pm • Submit your own review...