Their lack of knowledge beyond the cove is so total that one character asks Evered, “Who told thee thou wast naked?” (Genesis 3:11).

The world at large is literally and figuratively beyond them. Specifically, they know of only one other city, across the water, called Mockbeggar. It exists, but they know not to what extent or what the world truly is. To the two land-locked orphans, however, this outside world is a philosophical conundrum, a figment that only they can imagine-like Tolkein’s Undying Lands. Having learned some small sense of fishery from his Father, Evered convinces The Beadle to sell (Read: indenture) him equipment to get through the season, and he’ll pay the man back with the fish he catches during the summer.įor the most part, this is the bulk of the outside contact that Evered and Ada have with what we would call the outside world. By some miracle, they survive the rest of the Winter until THE HOPE, the supply vessel that stocked the family every spring and fall, arrives. They are left to fend for themselves on a coastal plot of land called “Orphan’s Cove” near Newfoundland. Their parents and little sister dying in short order, during a harsh winter, to some unnamed illness. The Innocents tells the story of Ada and Evered, two young children orphaned when they were nine and eleven respectively. It’s possible that this is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon happening in real time, in that I have been thinking about characterization for the last month, but this is a novel built entirely on the power of two characters. What I do know is that it has been shortlisted for Canada’s prestigious 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize-an award that comes with a small monetary gift of $100,000. I have absolutely no idea how I came across Michael Crummey’s “The Innocents,” but I am glad it appeared to me through the void, on my kindle, ready to read.

Michael crummey the innocents review