THE STRUGGLE GOES ON
Following the success of Shiaba, this novel follows the lives of two crofters struggling to come to terms with the Highland clearances. While Catherine spreads her wings to find new talents for survival within herself, her husband, Callum, uses his stubborn loyalty to the land of his fathers to face down the increasing wrath of a political system weighted against them.
Willie Orr’s achingly beautiful detail describes the purity of the crofters’ lives and faith and their bone-deep love of the land, which makes its loss more biting. We see the accentuated contrast between the rich complacency of the landowners and the desperate suffering of the poor, when charity came on condition of proper gratitude, with the obdurate Factor, in his nastiness and venality, abusing his power to rob helpless crofters.
Catherine, though, is the heart of the book. Her beauty, patience, talent, and hard-working generosity shine through and make her strongest, link to the lost land of Shiaba itself.