Sweetland

Michael Crummey's Sweetland opens with a Newfoundland fisherman named Moses Sweetland coming upon a boatload of dark-skinned men adrift in a dense fog. Who are they? Is it a dream? They are all too real and he tows them back to Sweetland, the tiny island community named for his ancestors. It's an engaging beginning to the tale of a man and his island.
Except for a brief and nasty stay in Toronto where he went to find work when he was young, Sweetland, now 69 years old, has spent his entire life in his birthplace. He is a quiet, solitary man who fished for cod until the moratorium in 1992 and then served as the lighthouse keeper until that job came to an end when the light was automated.
After Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949 the government offered incentives to residents of isolated outports to move to larger centres. Votes were held, with a majority of 80 percent needed for the village to be abandoned. Families were often pitted against each other with the younger members wanting to move because of education and older members reluctant to leave the only home they'd ever known. Sweetland is set in the early part of the 21st century against a similar relocation scenario.
Residents are offered $100,000 if all of them agree to leave so the government can cease providing services to the island. Moses is the last holdout, incurring the wrath of his relatives and neighbours who want to take the package.

The atmospheric island is the star of this story and its eccentric residents are its supporting cast. Crummey weaves the past and present together, seamlessly unspooling Moses' personal history slowly but deliberately until the powerful finale. This was the best book I read in 2017 and I can't recommend Sweetland highly enough.

Note: Last summer I took this wonderful tour with Bruce Miller. It was the highlight of my trip to Newfoundland and it provided context for Sweetland.