The Shore by Sara Taylor

I was lucky to hear Sara read extracts from The Shore, her debut novel, at the Parisot Literary Festival. The book was long-listed for the 2015 Bailey’s Prize.  The Shore is a book of thirteen interwoven short stories, the earliest of which is set in 1876 and the latest in the future, in 2143. The setting is The Shore, a collection of small islands off the coast of Virginia.   It is a dark read, dealing with abusive relationships, so it’s not for the faint-hearted.  There is a strong sense of place seen through the eyes of the different narrators.  The stories ebb and flow just like the sea, which is a huge part of island life.  I was blown away by the vivid descriptions and heart felt emotion, which seem so right for the particular narrator, the time and the place.  My only criticism would be that some of the stories have similar themes and many of the female characters seemed obsessed with motherhood.  The structure of using connected short stories is interesting and the fact that they are not written in chronological order means the reader has to do some work, which I liked.   Different viewpoint styles make the narrators voice distinctive with some stories written in the first person, some in the third person and one in the second person.  There is a family tree at the start of the book and I kept having to refer to this to see how all the different characters were linked, but this wasn’t a problem and I found it added to the overall intrigue and kept me turning the pages.  The first two stories were my favourite.  I could read this book again.  I look forward to reading more from this author.