THE SILVER DARLINGS

The craftiers had been driven from their inland tiny farms to the east coast of land, making an attempt at farming rocky headlands, and to out a livelihood with coastal fishing. ""The silver darlings"" are the herring that make or break them. And this is a story of such a community, a century ago -- a story that has something of that rare folk quality, that insight into almost primitive people, untouched by civilization, that gave distinction to Men of Aram and Twenty Years A-Growing. Against this setting, part of it, are the people whose lives are drawn in this story, -- Catrine, who lost her husband almost before she had him, lost him to the sea she feared; Finn, whom she tried to mold into a landsman, fearing for him his father's fate, but who was drawn irresistibly to the sea; Roddie, leader of the fisherfolk, who loved her in his austere way -- and who was at odds with Finn because of her; Kirsty, who gave her a home -- and who was a victim of the dreaded plague. There are other villagers, but the story revolves chiefly around Catrine, Roddie and Finn, a strange triangle -- and around the call of the sea. There's some rarely beautiful writing -- Neil Guna writes from inner knowing of his people and his soil. A more substantial book than Young Art and Old Hector -- and with more sales possibilities than his earlier books.