‘The Colony’ by Audrey Magee | Class 82. School of the Arts Book Club with Anna DiMartino | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (September 9)

Are you an avid reader, or would you simply like to read more? Would you like to read more thoughtfully? Are you intellectually curious and longing to be with a group of like-minded folks?

Join us for lively and thought-provoking discussion on award-winning (or nominated) literature, primarily fiction.

Wine and snacks provided.

September 9: The Colony by Audrey Magee
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

“Luminous.” ―Jonathan Myerson, The Guardian
“Vivid, thought-provoking.” ―Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune

In 1979, as violence erupts all over Ireland, two outsiders travel to a small island off the west coast in search of their own answers, despite what it may cost the islanders.

It is the summer of 1979. An English painter travels to a small island off the west coast of Ireland. Mr. Lloyd takes the last leg by curragh, though boats with engines are available and he doesn’t much like the sea. He wants the authentic experience, to be changed by this place, to let its quiet and light fill him, give him room to create. He doesn’t know that a Frenchman follows close behind.

Masson has visited the island for many years, studying their language. He is fiercely protective of their isolation; it is essential to exploring his theories of language preservation and identity. But the people who live on this rock—three miles long and half a mile wide—have their own views on what is being recorded, what is being taken, and what ought to be given in return.

Over the summer, each of them—from great-grandmother Bean Uí Fhloinn to widowed Mairéad and fifteen-year-old James, who is determined to avoid the life of a fisherman—will wrestle with their own values and desires. Meanwhile, all over Ireland, violence is erupting. And there is blame enough to go around.

An expertly woven portrait of character and place, a stirring investigation into yearning to find one’s own way, and an unflinchingly political critique of the long, seething cost of imperialism, The Colony is a novel that transports, that celebrates beauty and connection, and that reckons with the inevitable ruptures of independence.