"They were left alone in the cove then.... A body must bear what can't be helped." Michael Crummey (Sweetland; Galore) rivets and flays his readers with The Innocents, a novel of innocence and hardship and what is intrinsically human.
"They were still youngsters that winter," begins the story, in the season when siblings Evered and Ada lose their family: first their baby sister dies, then their parents, one after the other. Following these events of just the first five pages, the two children fumble through the tasks their parents had struggled to complete. Evered fishes in a small boat in the Newfoundland cove that is all they have ever known. Ada gardens, after both children haul seaweed and caplin (small fish), turning them stinking into the scant soil. They pick berries in the fall, collect caplin in the spring, fish for cod all summer and salt it throughout the season. Twice a year they expect a visit from The Hope, the schooner that brings flour, peas, salt meat, tea, molasses and eventually rum, on credit against salt cod.
A gifted writer, Crummey shows imagination and compassion for his young protagonists and a care for the oddities of language specific to time and place. The Innocents is deeply pained and enchanting, full of small joys and victories as well as the pressing multitude of aches and challenges that mere living offers to two babes alone in a fierce environment. This searing novel will keep readers engrossed in its harsh world long after its optimistic conclusion. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia