In 2014, Audrey Magee announced her arrival on the literary scene with "The Undertaking," a powerful and perceptive debut that illuminated some of the calamities of World War II through the separate ordeals of a German husband and wife — hers domestic on the home front, his militaristic on the Eastern Front. Eight years on from that debut, the Irish author returns with a follow-up. "The Colony" plays out in a smaller space to that of its predecessor but it proves fertile ground for exploring big ideas, widespread tensions and fatal consequences.
The book opens with Mr. Lloyd, an English artist, heading out to sea in a fragile hand-rowed currach. His destination is a remote island of only 92 inhabitants off the west coast of Ireland. His aim is to spend the summer of 1979 painting cliffs. "I like being on the edge," he tells 15-year-old James, one of the few islanders who speaks English and isn't put out by his presence.
Just as Lloyd is adapting to the rhythms of island life, along comes another outsider. Jean-Pierre Masson, a French linguist who specializes in "languages threatened with extinction," has been visiting the island for the past five years as part of a project to write a history of Gaelic. Unlike Lloyd, he can communicate with the locals and has earned their trust. When Masson moves into the cottage next to Lloyd's, each man accuses the other of encroaching upon his turf and causing a disruption: Lloyd needs solitude and silence to paint; Masson needs full immersion in the Irish language and no proximity to an English speaker.
