On this side of the reef the orange buoys mark the lobster pots, a string of plastic baubles over their death-traps, trailing long chains down into the dark. A small island stands in the English Channel, barely changed by the tides. On its surface, the islanders go about their daily lives: everyone knows everybody else, and no move goes undetected. Having left the island and Brenda, the mother of his two children, Peter decides to return when he hears news of her sharp decline since. He finds her pregnant, living alone ...
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On this side of the reef the orange buoys mark the lobster pots, a string of plastic baubles over their death-traps, trailing long chains down into the dark. A small island stands in the English Channel, barely changed by the tides. On its surface, the islanders go about their daily lives: everyone knows everybody else, and no move goes undetected. Having left the island and Brenda, the mother of his two children, Peter decides to return when he hears news of her sharp decline since. He finds her pregnant, living alone in his sister Elsa's house. Elsa is nowhere to be seen. Then, on a wild and stormy night, youngest son Danny goes missing too. Somewhere on this tiny island, a terrible secret lies waiting to be revealed. Candy Neubert is the author of the novel Foreign Bodies (Seren, 2009), along with the poetry pamphlets Zen Frog and Island. Born in the Channel Islands, she lives in Devon and maintains strong ties with South Africa, where she lived from 1990 to 1996. She has received numerous literary awards and prizes including the Bridport Prize, and her poetry has featured widely in magazines like The Rialto, Poetry Review, Poetry London and the TLS.
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Add this copy of Big Low Tide to cart. $52.56, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Seren.
I?m a slow reader and when I first began reading this book, I didn?t get very far. When I found time to pick it up again, I became so involved with the central characters that I went back to the beginning again to make sure I hadn?t missed anything. Once hooked, I was so caught up with these people I couldn?t put it down and I read the book right through to the end with hardly a break.
The setting is a claustrophobic small-island community and the story has an unusual structure, but this really worked for me. I like the reversal of traditional roles ? here it?s the wife who abandons her home and for an ill-fated love-affair, while her husband is left behind to be the faithful and hard-working single parent, until jealousy gets the better of him.
Candy Neubert is an economical writer ? there?s no time-wasting waffle ? every word is there for good reason. My only frustration was that certain sections of the protagonists? lives are missed out ? and I want to know everything! In this respect, and in the vivid scene setting and the way the writing moves from one location to another, it seems to me more like a film than a novel. I felt the author was inviting me to join her in spying on these people?s lives.
Big low Tide conjures up all the charm and nostalgia of ?Doc Martin? but with far more pithy storylines that stayed with me long after I?d finished reading.
I?ve also read and liked ?Foreign Bodies? by the same author, as well her poetry book ?Island?, which certainly ?hits the spot? for me.
