Galore by Michael Crummey.✔✔✔✔✔

I just enjoyed a week-long holiday in Newfoundland - without leaving the house! I smelled the cod, felt the cold winds, heard the voices of the characters, and revelled in their wonderful stories. This book had stories galore, as the title suggests, and I savoured every one, every character - from the new Anglican priest who stumbled up the dock after his voyage from England, Judah, who sprang full-blown from the belly of a whale, Devine's Widow with her tart tongue and great knowledge, to Esther, the famous opera star who returns to her hometown after fleeing the stages of European opera houses.

The book begins in the early 1800s and ends just after the first world war, so this is pioneering Newfoundland we get to experience, and I would say it's a folkloric history of Newfoundland, based in a small outport hear Harbour Grace, mainly concerns itself with two families, who merge in interesting ways as the book progresses. but whose lives and experiences are those of all Newfoundlanders.

If you've visited Newfoundland, you don't want to miss this one, and if you haven't, you'll want to go for sure after reading this. Just wonderful!!