We join the blog tour for the poignantly beautiful The Lost Light of St Kilda.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda – the blurb
1927: When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda, little does he realize that he has joined the last community to ever live on that beautiful, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer – and the island woman, Chrissie, whom he falls in love with – becomes the very thing that sustains him in the years ahead.
1940: Fred has been captured behind enemy lines in France and finds himself in a prisoner-of-war camp. Beaten and exhausted, his thoughts return to the island of his youth and the woman he loved and lost. When Fred makes his daring escape, prompting a desperate journey across occupied territory, he is sustained by one thought only: finding his way back to Chrissie.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a sweeping love story that will cross oceans and decades. It is a moving and deeply vivid portrait of two lovers, a desolate island, and the extraordinary power of hope in the face of darkness.
Judge a book by its cover
I decided to read the book from its cover alone, the colours of the cover image were simply beautiful. When it arrived, the hardback didn’t disappoint with the inside containing a map of St Kilda – a tiny cluster of islands at the western edge of the outer Hebrides. The writing style was also beautiful. flitting between islander Chrissie, tourist Fred and Chrissie’s daughter Rachel Anne. It drifted between the then (1927) and the ‘now’ (1941) allowing the reader to witness the last few years of life on St Kilda.
A love story
The Lost Lights is a love story but not just between two people. It’s also to a way of life, an island and something now lost. As Fred’s rescue came tantalising close so did St Kilda’s downfall. I thought Gifford truly did justice to the people of St Kilda. Whilst the characters were fictional, the book is based on true events – the people of St Kilda were evacuated with it still classed as having no permanent inhabitants even today.
Parts of the book are very gentile. The descriptions of the way of life, the way Chrissie and Fred fell in love. Yet reading the parts where Fred attempted to escape from Nazi occupation was gripping. Would anyone betray him? Would he survive? It was also quite emotional at times. I found the part when the people left Hirta for the last time to be truly sad. It was so poignant to witness the last few years of a way of life never to be seen again.
Thanks
In some ways The Lost Lights of St Kilda reminded me of The Photographer of the Lost (my book of the year in 2019) which is never going to be a bad comparison. I’m pleased I got to read this beautiful book and I thank Corvus, via the Random Things Tour for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.