Imagine battling the elements for survival on a remote Scottish archipelago. Your entire world consists of the struggles and successes of a small close-knit crofting community way out in the Atlantic Ocean. For over two thousand years people lived on St Kilda. But in 1930 the islanders’ wish to be evacuated was granted and, after the last summer, they were transported to the mainland.
But would life on the mainland be any better?
This dramatic part of Scottish history inspired Karen Swan to write the Wild Isle Series that follows the lives of four St Kildan women before, during and after the evacuation. The Last Summer is the first part in the four-book series and centres on spirited Effie Gillies. This eighteen-year-old has lived her entire life on St Kilda and refuses to be defined by her sex. She can scale the dramatic cliffs better than any man dressed in her dead brother’s clothes. And she must do so in order to support her ageing widowed father and pay their annual rent.
During the last summer a visit changes everything
However, her life is upended from a visit by handsome Lord Sholto, heir to the Earl of Dumfries. The attraction is instant and as Effie acts as a tour guide she falls in love for the first time. But with a storm forecast her world falls apart.
Three months later Effie must start a new life away from her beloved St. Kilda and finds herself working on the earl’s estate. But in the real-world class, rank and upbringing mean everything. And back on deserted St Kilda a secret waits to be discovered.
Stunning St Kilda is like nowhere else
I was lucky enough to visit the dramatic St. Kilda archipelago in 2013. Now owned by the National Trust for Scotland it is a breathtaking, isolated part of the British Isles. An abandoned house in Village Bay is now a museum, providing a fascinating and poignant insight into island life. And with huge bird colonies, this World Heritage Site truly is an epic place. I was therefore intrigued to read a fictitious account of St Kilda. Could it capture its raw beauty, its edge-of-the-world existence and combine them with a captivating story?
Does The Last Summer by Karen Swan deliver? In a word. Yes.
This Sunday Times Bestseller has produced a brilliant novel that transports you back in time. Effie’s emotions are lain bare as she’s ripped away from anything familiar. We experience her hopes, heartaches and moments of wonder. She sees herself in a mirror for the first time, sinks into a bubble bath and comes across a hat stand. These, and many more instances, bring home what had to be an incredibly confusing and traumatic redefining of the islanders’ sense of self.
In The Last Summer Swan vividly captures a vanishing island life, the evacuation and its aftermath through a brilliant cast of characters. We cheer on strong-willed Effie as she manoeuvres her way through a foreign world and we hope everything will turn out okay.
I won’t provide any spoilers but I’ll certainly be reading the rest of the Wild Isle Series. For lovers of historical romance, The Last Summer by Karen Swan is an absolute gem.