Wild Harbour by Ian Macpherson

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 stars


This is somewhat of a dystopian novel set around the time of WWII. The book was written prior to the war, but was a few years in the future during 1944. It was apparent that the author felt the world was heading toward war, and it's reflected in the characters and the atmosphere of the book. In this respect, the book was eerily prescient.

The book centers around a Scottish couple and how they react to the inevitable war to come. They decide to seek refuge in a cave in the wilderness until the war ends. They learn survival skills, and acquire a false sense of security in terms of their safety, thinking they are far-removed from the war itself.

The premise of this book is fantastic, but the execution fell a little short for me. The author had a tendency toward wordiness and over-description. I also had some difficulty bonding with the couple.

It is interesting to note that the author died in a motorcycle accident during the year that the book was set.

[Jane]

As the description in Boxall indicates, the novel spends a lot of time on the minutiae of the couple's efforts to live in a cave in the Scottish hills during a future war (the Boxall entry makes a big error in stating that the novel is set in 1914. It is set in 1944 and the novel was written in 1936). This minutiae was not very interesting to me. I appreciated the book's attempt to show how doomed mankind is, it just never worked for me.

⭐⭐