Sweetland

Author/Guide: Michael Crummey

Why a Booktrail?

2000s and before: A small Canadian island, a rich heritage is at risk of disappearing. One man stands strong and refuses to leave.

ISBN: 978-0871407900
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. It’s a barely populated town and has been slowly declining for sometime. The government on the mainland has just offered each and every islander a resettlement package but everyone has to leave in order for anyone to receive any money.

Moses Sweetland’s ancestors founded the village and he is fiercely opposed to leaving the island. He watches in sadness as the neighbours who have known for years gradually leave their home, the island he loves.

Now all he can do is to think of the town’s rugged history and the mythical landscape of Sweetland.

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Travel Guide

“The mauze lifted a little at first light and he thought he might be able to pick his way home.Ha the island is sight when the mist muffled in, so think he couldn’t see ten feet past the bow.”

“The wail of the foghorn on Burnt Head. And in the lull between, a murmur that seemed vaguely human. Then a single wordless syllable shouted, like a dog’s bark”

This is an island where history and culture have lived together for years, where people have lived and loved and created an idyllic life for themselves for years. Where life is sometimes tough, the weather harsh and supplies difficult to come by but where the mainland and the rest of the world is far away. It is an amalgamation of many an island where the old Canadian way of life is in decline. The author mentions Baccalieu Island as an inspiration for the setting and landscape.

This is a traditional island, where the men and boys go out to sea, fishing and preserving the islanders way of life. The women work preparing the food and fish the men bring back, looking after their families and tending to their crops. The entire village is based on fish as food and and industry. Relocation would mean a way of life and a history of a people, would disappear.

No one locks their doors, where a stranger arriving from the boat is a strange sight. Sweetland himself refers to it as “The Edge of the Civiised world” as you don’t get a phone signal for one.

Sweetland founded this island and so this island is part of him, part of his history too and an essential part of who and what he is. A man troubled as the rest of his neighbours have agreed to leave.