The Fishermans Gift, Julia R Kelly
The Fishermans Gift, Julia R Kelly
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
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The Fisherman's Gift

Author: Julia R Kelly

Narrator: Bobby Rainsbury

Unabridged: 9 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/18/2025


Synopsis

The Light Between Oceans meets The Snow Child in this novel set in a Scottish village in the weeks after a young boy mysteriously washes up on shore, causing the buried secrets of the insular community to come to light and rekindling an old love story.

“Breathtaking. An exquisitely written, pitch-perfect look at love and shame, what is lost and what is found.” —Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle and Hang the Moon

It’s 1900 and Skerry, a small Scottish fishing village, is destined for an unyielding winter. During a storm, a young boy washes up on the shore. He bears an uncanny resemblance to teacher Dorothy’s son, lost to the sea at the same age many years before, his body never found.

The village is soon snowed in, and Dorothy agrees to look after the child until they can uncover the mystery of his origins. But over time, the lines between reality and desperate hope start to blur as the boy reminds Dorothy more and more of her own lost child.

The boy’s arrival also finally forces Dorothy to face the truth about her brief but passionate love affair with Joseph, the fisherman who found the boy on the shore and who has been the subject of whispers connecting him to the drowning of Dorothy’s son years earlier.

As the past rises to meet the present, long-buried secrets are unearthed within this tight-knit community, and the child’s arrival becomes a catalyst for something far greater than any of them could imagine.

About Julia R Kelly

Julia Kelly has been longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Prize, the Exeter Novel Prize, PenguinWriteNow, and the Bath Novel Award. In 2021 she won the Blue Pencil First Novel Award. Having grown up in a house without television, Julia read anything she could lay her hands on, and as an English teacher, she has tried to pass on her love of stories to the next generation of readers and writers. Since being confined to a wheelchair, Julia has learned to appreciate even more fully the journeys the written word can take us on. She lives in Herefordshire with her partner and between them, they have raised five wonderful children. The Fishermans Gift is her debut novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Krystal on January 30, 2025

A character driven debut that takes a deep dive into difficult topics. 💔 In 1900 a young boy washes ashore in a close knit Scottish fishing village. The young survivor’s sudden appearance brings the past to the surface and the story that unfolds is poignant. The young boy is soon placed under the car......more

Goodreads review by Christy on February 27, 2025

'...when you talk, you find things out, things about yourself, like the creatures in the rock pools you hadn't known were there until the sea let you see them'. Skerry Sands is a remote Scottish fishing village, often cut off by tempestuous weather and isolated by the sea that gives the villagers the......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews on April 20, 2025

A small Scottish village has secrets, and Dorothy has been keeping one for many years, but the biggest secret and puzzle is did someone have anything to do with the disappearance/drowning of Dorothy’s son, Moses. When another child who looks like Moses washes up many years later, it brings back all t......more

Goodreads review by Sophie on March 09, 2025

Enthralling, touching and inspiring, this impressive historical fiction debut has a touch of magical realism and explores grief, healing, immorality, redemption and second chances. Kelly’s wave of narrative carries us up through the crests of joy and plunges us into the depths of sorrow, a voyage as......more

Goodreads review by Annette on April 25, 2025

Set in 1900 Skerry – a small Scottish fishing village, where a child’s arrival, washed up at shore, shakes this tight-knit community. Dorothy takes the temporary care of the child. Despite the resemblance, she knows it can’t be her child lost to waters years earlier, same age as this boy now. The stor......more