Light - Softcover

Margaret Elphinstone is the author of eight previous novels, including Voyageurs and The Sea Road. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives in Glasgow and teaches at the Department of English Studies at Strathclyde University.

Sisters-in-law Lucy and Diya have three children between them and live on the remote island of Ellan Bride off the Isle of Man in 1831. Ever since Diya's husband died, Lucy has lit the lamps and polished the reflectors in the lighthouse, whose beam saves an untold number of sailors' lives every year in the treacherous seawaters. But new technology has brought Archie Buchanan, an ambitious surveyor, and his hardworking assistant, Ben Groat, to the tiny island to scope out a project for building a new lighthouse. The women are frightened about what the change means for their future, while the children, at first nervous in the presence of strangers, are intrigued by their equipment and far-ranging conversations, which provide glimpses of the outside world. Then Diya's strong-willed daughter provokes a crisis by attempting to lead Archie astray on a remote footpath. In this moving depiction of a close-knit family learning to navigate overwhelming change, Elphinstone also brings alive the stark beauty of the island through her graceful, finely detailed descriptions of the wildlife and landscape. Joanne Wilkinson
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