Whale Fall

"Elizabeth O’Connor’s spare and bracing debut opens with an isolated Welsh island on a precipice. It is September 1938, and a whale has washed ashore, transfixing the 12 families that remain and drawing the attention of a pair of ethnographers from Oxford who are eager to document the islanders’ customs. Initially, Manod Llan, the novel’s gimlet-eyed, 18-year-old narrator, is eager to translate for the ethnographers – their attention stokes her desire to lead a worldlier life. But as Whale Fall unfolds, Manod must reckon with the costs of being seen from the outside."