A Summer of Drowning, By John Burnside

A long time ago, on an island far, far away ...

This is a creepy, odd tale set in a creepy, odd landscape full of myth and shadows.

Liv lives on an island in the Arctic, and has never known who her father, a reclusive artist, is. One summer when she is a teenager – that ripe time for all fairytale heroines – two of her classmates die, apparently in separate boating accidents. Martin Crosbie, a creepy, odd visitor to the island, whom Liv soon discovers has a penchant for taking pictures of young girls without their knowledge, will soon follow in their wake.

John Burnside spins fairytale themes around this story of a fatherless daughter to great effect, while a kind of power battle between men and women on the island reaches a subtle pitch.