This earthy magical and cleverly woven tale is interspersed with historical facts and mythologies. It is a gutsy read laced with literary references to environmental and feminist concerns. Radical and bold it tells with intensity of a disappearance and uses court transcripts from the investigation to reveal a cast of diverse women who are driven to develop a new and more meaningful community. It's a unique reimagining of how our world could be.
On Thursday morning, when Eva stepped off Fred's boat again, she was still telling herself that everything the women had said was just a little too much. Then she drove back to Ayrness, and she saw it as if for the first time: men everywhere she looked: in the political structures of the islands and the country, running the council and the college, in the names of the streets, the churches, on lamp posts, road names, even drain covers. Overhead, underfoot, men were predominant without even trying.
