"The Colony" by Audrey Magee
Review by Angela Myers, Senior Library Assistant, Central Library
Audrey Magee’s historical fiction book, “The Colony,” is a gorgeously written love letter to rural Ireland, a scathing criticism of imperialism and a question about the complicated choices that come with independence.
In the summer of 1979, during one of the most violent periods of the Troubles, an English painter named Mr. Lloyd boards a boat to spend the summer on a tiny island off the west coast of a war-weary Ireland. He has high hopes that by capturing the quaint and simple locals on canvas he can catapult his career and recover his wife’s affections back in London. A second summer cottage is soon rented by the Frenchman, Masson, who has been visiting the island for years to document and preserve the Irish language, while grappling with his own French-Algerian colonial heritage.
The two visitors squabble over culture, language and the attention of the locals. Meanwhile the island’s lifelong Gaelic speaking inhabitants, including the widowed Mairéad, great-grandmother Bean Uí Fhloinn and young James face new possibilities as modernity approaches their island, and their way of life seems to be coming to an end. The islanders must forge their own future amidst the desire to cultivate their personal identity, contrary to the plans of the interlopers.
Magee transported me entirely with scenes painted like the oil on canvas works of her protagonist. One moment the reader feels as vulnerable as a tiny rowboat on the Atlantic Ocean, and the next we are warmed by whiskey and a pink sunset glowing through the spray beyond the island’s rocky cliffs. Yet these picturesque chapters are interspersed with brief descriptions of the bursts of violence on the mainland, planting the story firmly in conflict.
The dialogue, peppered generously with the Irish language, speaks volumes in subtext. I often felt like I was watching a well-acted play. As a fan of a foggy stage and the Irish lilt, I would gladly fly to Dublin for what I hope will be the inevitable stage adaptation.