Instead, the story focuses on the bond between Ada and Evered Best, who after losing their parents and infant sister to illness, are left to fend for themselves in the desolate harbour they call home. (Richard Lautens/Toronto Star/Getty Images) It would take Crummey years and several abandoned attempts to find a way into his latest work of historical fiction The Innocents, published by Doubleday Canada, which hits shelves Tuesday.ĭespite the book's incestuous undertones, Crummey hopes readers will be able to relate to the coming-of-age narrative at its centre: the jarring realization that there are limits to one's understanding, even about oneself.Īuthor Michael Crummey says Newfoundland and Labrador is often the main character of his novels. He worried a tale inspired by the account would seem contrived, oversentimental or even exploitative. When Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey dug up the clergyman's one-paragraph account of this encounter in the provincial archives, he knew there was a story to be told, but wasn't sure if he was up to the task of telling it. After he confronted them about the child's paternity, the brother chased the outsider away with a rifle, leaving the family to mind their craggy corner of the Earth. He determined there could only be one explanation for the pregnancy.

Travelling along the uncharted coasts of Newfoundland, a clergyman came across an orphaned brother and sister living alone in an isolated cove, with a baby on the way.

The innocents by michael crummey