2022/130: The Brides of Rollrock Island — Margo Lanagan

2022/130: The Brides of Rollrock Island — Margo Lanagan

They were not costumes; they were peeled-off parts of our mothers; without them, how could our mams be themselves, their real selves, their under-sea selves, the selves they were born into? They walked about on land with no protection, from the cold or from our dads falling in love with them, or from us boys needing them morning and night. [p. 236]

Life on the island of Rollrock is salt-stung, windswept, hand to mouth. Misskaella grows up lonely and bitter, 'a bit slanted, a bit mixed', ostracised by her family and slowly awakening to her bond with the seals that bask on the sands. She can see something within them, points of light like stars, that can be drawn together to bring a human out of a seal. She recognises that this is power, that this is freedom -- for her, not for the seal-wives that she sells. ( Read more... )