Two significant events of 19th century Scottish history form the backdrop to Clear, the wonderful and moving novel by British author Carys Davies. The first is the Disruption of 1843, when evangelicals broke with the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The second is the second wave of what’s known as the Highland Clearances, when the great landowners of Scotland realized they could make more money from sheep than from tenant farmers – and drove them off the land.
John Ferguson is a Church of Scotland minister who joins the dissenting and departing ministers. The problem he faces is financial – how to support himself and his wife Mary until the new church is a going concern. Mary’s brother-in-law prevails upon a landowner to give John a position.
The job has one duty. John must travel to an island in the North Sea between Shetland and Norway and evict the last remaining tenant, a bear of a man named Ivar who leads something of a hardscrabble life with a few sheep, a blind cow, and an old horse. Ivar doesn’t speak English; his language is something between Gaelic and Norwegian. So Ferguson’s first need is to talk to a teacher in Lerwick who is said to know Ivar’s language.
The man doesn’t know the language, but John presses onward, finally reaching the island. His boat transportation will return in a month. He has to somehow explain to Ivar what is happening and convince him to leave.
Carys Davies
John sets up in the baillie or old manager;’ house and then finds a spring to take a bath. He accidentally falls down a cliff and loses consciousness. Ivar finds him and carries him back to his own hut. Unconscious for days, John eventually regains consciousness and slowly recovers from his injuries. In the meantime, the two men have to find a way to communicate, and John has to explain what is to happen.
The story centers on the relationship the two men begin to build, and the words they teach each other. Back in Scotland, Mary begins to worry about how ill-prepared her husband was to undertake the assignment, and she decides to join him.
The story of the three is simply and beautifully told. Davies has a gift for placing the reader as a silent observer, experiencing the feelings, emotions, and growing affection the characters have for each other.
Davies has previously published the novels West and The Mission House and two short story collections, Some New Ambush and The Redemption of Golden Pike. Her novels and stories have received numerous awards, prizes, and recognitions, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. A native of Wales, she grew up there and in England, and she now lives in Edinburgh.
And with Clear, she’s written a terrific story.
Some Thursday Readings
Murders for August – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.
“One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand,” poem by Edmund Spencer – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Year of the Monarch: Butterfly Kisses – A Romantic Comedy – Dheepa Maturi at Tweetspeak Poetry.
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