I picked up this massive paperback in one of our little free libraries (a weatherproof outdoor bookcase where people leave and take books.) I physically can’t pass by one without at least a sweep through the titles. I thought it might tell the tale of Hy Brasil, a mythical island off the West Coast of Ireland, that only reveals itself in the shifting mists every seven years. The name comes from the Old Irish Uí Breasail, meaning descendants of Breasal (mighty/beautiful.)
This story was not at all what I was expecting. I read the entire book of 438 pages entranced. It contained no fantasy whatsoever and I simply couldn’t put it down. Elphinstone’s Hy Brasil is as much a treasure as the Spanish goblet Jared finds while diving off the coast.
“… it was a delicate green, dark at the base, and translucent in the bowl, like seawater … The stem widened out into a fluted base; the shape under his fingers was like overlapping petals. There were circular ridges under the bowl of the goblet. And on the side of the bowl … a galleon” (80).
Hy Brasil was published in 2002, but the author, Margaret Elphinstone, Scottish poet and retired university English professor, says she wrote it in 1996/97 while spending a happy, inspired year at Central Michigan University as a visiting professor. I wish I’d been one of her students.
The story is a mystery/thriller/adventure inspired by the author’s love and understanding of several real and literary islands.
“My island of Hy Brasil is also Caliban’s, Robinson Crusoe’s, Gulliver’s, Long John Silver’s, Peter Pan’s, Ralph’s, and a host of other more or less fictional characters. It seems that people needed to believe in Hy Brasil. Until 1865 it actually appeared on Admiralty charts.”
https://www.margaretelphinstone.co.uk
Professor Elphinstone grew up on Shetland and taught at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Being fond of islands myself, I was absorbed by the lyrical descriptions and kept flipping back to the map (using my phone magnifier) to locate key characters and settings:
- Sidony Redruth, an Englishwoman, who fraudulently won a writing competition, has been tasked with writing a series of travel books beginning with Hy Brasil, something that combines a guidebook with a narrative and first-hand experience—like Bill Bryson and my friend Bill Arnott write. Sidony begins her stay in St. Brandon’s, a town with pastel townhomes reminiscent of Ireland or St. Johns, Nfld., but she soon moves in with Lucy. Sidony’s first line hooked me: “I would hate to have to choose, but I think I’d rather have traveling than sex.” Fortunately, for Sidony, both are readily available.
- Lucy Morgan, whose great-grandfather was a pirate, lives alone in her family’s fantastical old castle, Ravnscar, until joined by Sidony.
- Jared Honeyman inhabits a lonely seabird haven on the Isle of Despair. Since the lighthouse is automated, Jared lives in the third bungalow of three and spends many hours monitoring the new gannet population (his paying gig) while exploring the Cortez, a sunken Spanish wreck (1611) off the coast for which he’s been given exclusive rights of salvage.
- Ishmael Pereira, a businessman who lives at Ferdy’s Landing with his family and supports Jared’s salvage attempts along with Per, who drives the boat.
- Columbo McAdam, journalist and friend of Lucy’s, introduces Sidony to Finnegan’s on the High Street, a lovely book shop with yummy doughnuts. Columbo’s best line: “[History] can’t be changed, therefore it has to be forgiven” (164).
- Hy Brasil sits on the North Atlantic Ridge, has three mountains and is volatile. In fact, the eruption of Mount Brasil triggers a coup d’etat against the corrupt government. Sidony climbs Mt. Brasil alone and peers down the crater into the active volcano in an exceedingly well-written chapter (24).
Like any good mystery, there are murders, cover-ups and political intrigue. Add to that: piracy, sunken treasure, drug-smuggling, love affairs, eco-adventure, an active volcano, and incredibly detailed, sensory, lyrical writing and you have a masterpiece. This book’s a keeper that I’ll return to again and again. Someone needs to produce this story as a film.
