The Fisherman's Gift - by Julia R Kelly (Hardcover)

About the Book

"It's 1900 and Skerry, a small Scottish fishing village, is destined for an unyielding winter. During a storm, a young boy washes up on the shore. He bears an uncanny resemblance to teacher Dorothy's son, lost to the sea at the same age many years before, his body never found. The village is soon snowed in, and Dorothy agrees to look after the child until they can uncover the mystery of his origins. But over time, the lines between reality and desperate hope start to blur as the boy reminds Dorothy more and more of her own lost child. The boy's arrival also finally forces Dorothy to face the truth about her brief but passionate love affair with Joseph, the fisherman who found the boy on the shore and who has been the subject of whispers connecting him to the drowning of Dorothy's son years earlier. As the past rises to meet the present, long-buried secrets are unearthed within this tight-knit community, and the child's arrival becomes a catalyst for something far greater than any of them could imagine."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The Light Between Oceans meets The Snow Child in this novel set in a Scottish village in the weeks after a young boy mysteriously washes up on shore, causing the buried secrets of the insular community to come to light and rekindling an old love story.

It's 1900 and Skerry, a small Scottish fishing village, is destined for an unyielding winter. During a storm, a young boy washes up on the shore. He bears an uncanny resemblance to teacher Dorothy's son, lost to the sea at the same age many years before, his body never found.

The village is soon snowed in, and Dorothy agrees to look after the child until they can uncover the mystery of his origins. But over time, the lines between reality and desperate hope start to blur as the boy reminds Dorothy more and more of her own lost child.

The boy's arrival also finally forces Dorothy to face the truth about her brief but passionate love affair with Joseph, the fisherman who found the boy on the shore and who has been the subject of whispers connecting him to the drowning of Dorothy's son years earlier.

As the past rises to meet the present, long-buried secrets are unearthed within this tight-knit community, and the child's arrival becomes a catalyst for something far greater than any of them could imagine.

Review Quotes

"She depicts the nature of grief astutely...Kelly's skillfully delineated characters and expertly woven plot provide an engrossing story that lifts the spirits."--New York Journal of Books

"Kelly plumbs the human desire for connection--and capacity for disappointment--with a gentle, skillful hand. This promises good things to come from Kelly."--Publishers Weekly

"In a storm-lashed Scottish village, a child washes ashore. As winter descends and the village is cut off from the outside world, the child's arrival disturbs the fragile equilibrium of a community bound by silence, unraveling secrets and reawakening a love story long buried beneath grief and misunderstanding. The Fisherman's Gift is a poignant, spellbinding tale of loss and resilience. Kelly captures the ache of a mother's grief and the healing that can only come from confronting old wounds, reminding us that the human heart, like the sea, holds depths we can never fully fathom."--Christina Baker Kline, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train and The Exiles

"Hauntingly beautiful and completely absorbing, this tragic tale of grief, love and longing kept me reading well into the night. A stunning debut that will stay with me for a long time to come."--Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of The Love of My Life

"The Fisherman's Gift is breathtaking, an exquisitely written, pitch-perfect look at love and shame, what is lost and what is found. Like the sea she describes with haunting eloquence, Julia Kelly's story surges then ebbs, sweeping the reader along with its powerful currents."--Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle and Hang the Moon

"The Fisherman's Gift is as searing as a winter wind. In her debut novel, Julia R. Kelly takes us to the cliffside fishing village of Skerry, Scotland and walks us right up to the precipice of a mother's grief. With perfect pacing and vivid prose, Kelly shows us not just what was but what could have been, and therein lies this book's real gift." -Rachel Beanland, author of Florence Adler Swims Forever and The House is On Fire

"The spectacular Julia R. Kelly is a gift to readers everywhere. Her debut novel, The Fisherman's Gift is a treasure. This layered, heartfelt and sturdy novel is beautifully told and deeply rendered. Scotland in winter can be brutal, so can memories that haunt us with the desperation that comes from guilt. Yet, the heart of this novel is a blazing fire, throwing warmth and light. I imagine that this novel will be shared and read in the years to come by readers who long for a great story well told. I didn't want it to end." -Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone

"A beautiful story of grief, hope and love; of dark snowy nights, the mysteries of the sea and, above all, redemption."--LUCY DIAMOND, Sunday Times bestselling author of SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

About the Author

Julia Kelly has been longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Prize, the Exeter Novel Prize, PenguinWriteNow, and the Bath Novel Award. In 2021 she won the Blue Pencil First Novel Award. Having grown up in a house without television, Julia read anything she could lay her hands on, and as an English teacher, she has tried to pass on her love of stories to the next generation of readers and writers. Since being confined to a wheelchair, Julia has learned to appreciate even more fully the journeys the written word can take us on. She lives in Herefordshire with her partner and between them, they have raised five wonderful children. The Fisherman's Gift is her debut novel.