Sweetland by Michael Crummey

Moses Sweetland resides on an island that shares his last name off the coast of Newfoundland. He lives in a community on the verge of annihilation, no longer able to sustain itself through the fishing industry. A government compensation package has been offered to each resident—as long as everyone agrees to leave.

But Moses fights back against the loss of his history, his home, and all the people he has loved, both living and dead. He comes up with a plan to stay on the island and finds on Sweetland his own promised land, “as if he’d long ago been measured and made to the island’s exact specifications.”

Moses’ choice has ramifications he couldn’t have imagined, unearthing memories and unleashing surreal experiences, leaving him confused and dismayed. By turns despairing and hopeful, this challenging novel, which contains profanity and sexually explicit scenes, offers profound insights into the life of people caught between the familiar past and pressing modernity. (Doubleday Canada)