Consolation, By Michael Redhill
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.So many deaths, and so much earth over them, and how much we forget: this is the chant beneath Michael Redhill's novel of archaeology and loss.
Professor David Hollis, convinced that the remains of a ship lost in the mid-19th century can still be uncovered on the shores of Lake Ontario, is driven to suicide, ostensibly by the scorn of his colleagues. His widow sets up house in an apartment overlooking the site, refusing to speak to anyone.
Only her son-in-law to be can reach her, and to him falls the burden of recovering Hollis's lost legacy, and, through it, another one: the story Hollis had hoped to uncover, which was that of Jem Hallam, a failed English pioneer who, on discovering the art of photography, became an obsessive chronicler of Toronto, then was lost in a storm on Lake Ontario.
This is a tortuous and strange book, full of digressions and ragged seams. The author's gentle cadences carry the reader through, however.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments