The Fourth Island - by Sarah Tolmie (Paperback)

About the Book

"Huddled in the sea off the coast of Ireland is a fourth Aran Island, a secret island peopled by the lost, findable only in moments of despair. Whether drowned at sea, trampled by Cromwell's soldiers, or exiled for clinging to the dead, no outsiders reach the island without giving in to dark emotion"--Publisher marketing.

Book Synopsis

Dark, mournful, and beautiful, Sarah Tolmie's The Fourth Island is a moving and unforgettable story of life and death on the hidden Irish island of Inis Caillte.

Huddled in the sea off the coast of Ireland is a fourth Aran Island, a secret island peopled by the lost, findable only in moments of despair. Whether drowned at sea, trampled by Cromwell's soldiers, or exiled for clinging to the dead, no outsiders reach the island without giving in to dark emotion.

Time and again, The Fourth Island weaves a hypnotic pattern with its prose, presaging doom before walking back through the sweet and sour moments of lives not yet lost. It beautifully melds the certainty of loss with the joys of living, drawing readers under like the tide.

Review Quotes

"The Fourth Island is both beguiling and unsettling, both mythic and earthy. A truly memorable story, beautifully crafted." --Juliet Marillier, author of the Warrior Bards series

"The contemplative style, low stakes, and small cast is reminiscent of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle and is worthy of the association." --Publishers Weekly

"The Fourth Island is an absolute gem of a story, full of wonder, melancholy and no little wisdom." --Peadar Ó Guilín

"Part charm, part history, part ravishing spell in itself, The Fourth Island is the best kind of ghost story, reminding us of all the good and the bad in the world. I loved this book." --Helen Marshall

About the Author

SARAH TOLMIE is a poet, speculative fiction writer, and professor of English at the University of Waterloo. Her books of poetry, Trio in 2015 and The Art of Dying in 2018, both with McGill-Queen's University Press, were shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award and the Griffin Prize, respectively. Her fiction, published with Aqueduct Press, includes the novels The Little Animals (2019) and The Stone Boatmen (2014) which was a finalist for the Crawford award, the dual novella collection Two Travelers (2016), and the short fiction collection NoFood (2014). Her poem "Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld" won the 2019 Aurora Award and the 2019 Rhysling Award. Sarah Tolmie lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.