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The Colony: A Novel Paperback – June 13, 2023
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LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
“Luminous.” ―Jonathan Myerson, The Guardian
“Vivid, thought-provoking.” ―Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune
In 1979, as violence erupts all over Ireland, two outsiders travel to a small island off the west coast in search of their own answers, despite what it may cost the islanders.
It is the summer of 1979. An English painter travels to a small island off the west coast of Ireland. Mr. Lloyd takes the last leg by currach, though boats with engines are available and he doesn’t much like the sea. He wants the authentic experience, to be changed by this place, to let its quiet and light fill him, give him room to create. He doesn’t know that a Frenchman follows close behind. Jean-Pierre Masson has visited the island for many years, studying the language of those who make it their home. He is fiercely protective of their isolation, deems it essential to exploring his theories of language preservation and identity.
But the people who live on this rock―three miles long and half a mile wide―have their own views on what is being recorded, what is being taken, and what ought to be given in return. Over the summer, each of them―from great-grandmother Bean Uí Fhloinn, to widowed Mairéad, to fifteen-year-old James, who is determined to avoid the life of a fisherman―will wrestle with their values and desires. Meanwhile, all over Ireland, violence is erupting. And there is blame enough to go around.
An expertly woven portrait of character and place, a stirring investigation into yearning to find one’s way, and an unflinchingly political critique of the long, seething cost of imperialism, Audrey Magee’s The Colony is a novel that transports, that celebrates beauty and connection, and that reckons with the inevitable ruptures of independence.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPicador
- Publication dateJune 13, 2023
- Dimensions4.9 x 0.95 x 7.9 inches
- ISBN-101250867215
- ISBN-13978-1250867216
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Longlisted for the Booker Prize
A Best Book of the Year at The Times (London), The Irish Times, and The Globe and Mail
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Irish Book Award
“The Colony is a novel of ideas . . . Magee builds her world with a rich particularity . . . [anchored] in the brutal political realities of Ireland during a fateful summer, while acting as a reminder of imperialism’s broader legacy around the world.”
―Kathryn Hughes, The New York Times Book Review
“There are layers on layers [in The Colony]―art, revolution, passion and cheating, who is lying to whom, and how much do we lie to ourselves . . . What price are we willing to pay for creativity and fame?”
―Nancy Brown, The Boston Globe
“A story about language and identity, about art, oppression, freedom and colonialism . . . A novel about big, important things.”
―Lucy Scholes, Financial Times
“An exploration of art, language, and love.”
―The Christian Science Monitor, “10 Best Books of May”
“Like a fable, The Colony is sealed up tight, all possible meanings accounted for. And, like history itself, it has a bitter lesson to teach . . . It makes an ultimately satisfying shape in the mind, and creates a mood that lingers discomfitingly after the final page is turned.”
―Kevin Power, The Guardian
“What a relief it is to find a novel that treats the reader as a grown-up, that is fresh without chasing literary fashion, provocative but not shouty, and idiosyncratic but fully satisfying from the strange comedy of its opening pages to its decisive conclusion . . . [The Colony] contains multitudes―on families, on men and women, on rural communities―with much of it just visible on the surface, like the flicker of a smile or a shark in the water.”
―John Self, The Times
“Inspired . . . Magee strikes an expert balance of imagination and lucidity . . . [The Colony] proves that the path to understanding is a meaningful one.
―Ciara Brennan, The Rumpus
“[A] panorama of lyrical beauty, effort, and complex connection . . . A finely wrought, multilayered tale with the lucidity of a parable.”
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Lyrical and trenchant . . . It’s a delicate balance, and one the author pulls off brilliantly.”
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A compelling exploration of the intersection of the personal and the political.”
―Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)
“[The Colony] demands close attention, but deserves it as a carefully written and serious work of art should.”
―Allan Massie, The Scotsman
“A breathtaking and poignant story about language, art, and cultural identity.”
―Olivia Rutligliano, CrimeReads
“Lyrical . . . Forceful.”
―Amanda Ellison, BookBrowse
“The Colony is a brilliant novel, a subtle and thoughtfully calibrated commentary about the nature and balance of power between classes, cultures, genders. There is violence here, but, most impressively, Audrey Magee captures that more insidious cruelty―the kind masked as protection, as manners.”
―Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes
“A careful interrogation, The Colony expertly explores the mutability of language and art, the triumphs and failures inherent to the process of creation and preservation.”
―Raven Leilani, author of Luster
“A lyrical, rich, and emotionally powerful novel. The Colony comes alive like a brooding and beautiful canvas painted off the Irish coast.”
―Dominic Smith, author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
“The Colony is a vivid and memorable book about art, land and language, love and sex, youth and age. Big ideas tread lightly through Audrey Magee’s strong prose.”
―Sarah Moss, author of The Fell
“So brilliant in its quiet tragedy, so revealing in its precision. It haunts me.”
―Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of This Mournable Body
“The Colony is brimming with ideas about identity and soul; a canny, challenging, and never less than engrossing read.”
―Lisa McInerney, author of The Rules of Revelation
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Picador (June 13, 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250867215
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250867216
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.9 x 0.95 x 7.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #498,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,265 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #1,946 in Historical British & Irish Literature
- #25,266 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Audrey Magee was born in Ireland and lives in Wicklow. Her first novel, The Undertaking, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, for France's Festival du Premier Roman and for the Irish Book Awards. It was also nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The Undertaking was translated into ten languages and is being adapted for film. Her second novel, The Colony, published in 2022, has already been optioned for film and is receiving stellar reviews around the world. For those reviews, readings and interviews with Audrey, please visit her website www.audreymagee.com
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Hesh
Mr. Lloyd and Jean-Pierre Masson both visit the island with very different goals. One wanted a quiet place to draw, and another was to study the language and keep it alive. Of course, the two men share a tiny space. The linguist's desire to keep the language alive and the artist's desire for a vacation spot that has evolved slightly find themselves immediately at odds. The love of tradition and the willingness to change will also barely conflict with each other.
The three conflicted souls, James (given name Seamus, as Jean-Pierre insists on calling him), Jean-Pierre, and Mr. Lloyd, focus on the part of their lives that they hold dear. Protecting their art, language, and future are their singular goals. Due to the story's timing, the author regularly takes to non-connected stories about men killed in the IRA conflict. The islanders live disconnected from these troubles, but the incidents show how the language and culture are also dying.
The family on the island repeatedly says that they do not discuss politics on the island when the murders come up. Religion as the basis for the violence makes the conversation even more difficult. It makes the bickering about the language seem trivial. For that reason, I was a little anxious for the stories of the murders and our guests to mesh together since the arguing about the language became repetitive after a while. I felt we were supposed to agree with the linguist, but he came off as petulant.
That is not to say that isn't a lot of good stuff here. You could learn a lot about the significance of art, family, and tradition. I enjoyed the artist's apprentice theme and visual imagery. The author even had a way of building suspense over a large canvas. “The Colony” will be the quickest 370-page read of your life.
On the surface, this is a story about a remote island with several familiar story elements: an apprentice and his master, a love triangle of sorts, a generational family story, and the coming of age of an island boy.
But quickly we see that The Colony is about so much more: it’s about power, manipulation, betrayal, and the violent legacy of colonialism. It’s also about the smell of fish and paint and linseed oil, the symphony of seagulls, Ireland and the Troubles, a mother tongue, Gauguin and Manet, knitted jumpers, envy and jealousy, three drowned men, and the light between the waves.
The novel begins with the arrival of an English artist and a French linguist on a small Irish island during the summer of 1979. Mr. Lloyd, a landscape painter, worries about his waning talent and success. Jean-Pierre Masson, a French-Algerian linguist who has lost his own Arabic mother tongue, worries about Lloyd’s influence and lectures the islanders on colonial corruption of their language and lives. The artist and the linguist clash and argue; the locals view both outsiders with skepticism. But as the summer passes, the islanders find themselves seduced by their guests’ promises and schemes, especially young James Gillan who is longing for a different life.
The book is gorgeous and creative: sparse dialogue is contrasted with beautiful meditation on nature and art, and a playful narrative voice which slips into and zooms out of the characters. Equally slippery are the news vignettes of bombings and shootings in Northern Ireland which first punctuate the story as shocking interruptions, but then slowly seep into the minds and lives of the islanders as the sectarian violence escalates day after day. The effect is just stunning.
A powerful and incisive novel which I really hope we’ll see on a few award lists this year. Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.
Top reviews from other countries
Just having a personal life, a small life far away of big events is an illusion.
It wasn’t in 1979.
The Colony is set during that Summer on a remote Gaelic speaking island when Earl Mountbatten and others were blown up and sectarian assassinations or attempts took place almost daily. In London, I was told by a work colleague that he would no longer talk to me as I ‘had killed Mountbatten’.*
The Colony deals with the relationship between Ireland and England by focusing on an English artist coming to the Island to find himself. However, this is not some dreary weighty tome pointing fingers. The first thing that grabs the reader is the humour. Has humour died in contemporary Irish novels? It’s the lifeblood of the place from the dour, dry and black humour of the North to the lighter optimism in the South. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness where the Chuckle Brothers wasn’t an act.
The second is the description of the life in a dying community. It’s not Man of Aran cod Irishness but the unescapable march of progress that condemns the picturesque to colourised photos of a black and white past nobody wants to live in.
The third is the subtlety of the story. Magee has conveyed the relationship vividly within a tiny cast seemingly marooned from the unfolding Troubles and yet as affected by it as its victims and perpetrators.
Some of the criticism I’ve read is that its too long (it’s a perfect length), its modernist (incredibly easy to read and do we still have to write like Jane Austen?) and the ending is weak (only its ideal as there is no ending to this relationship, only change).
Possibly the finest Irish novel since Solar Bones and Milkman.
*The Colony doesn’t answer why someone felt emboldened to say this, but it does supply the context.