Isobel Gunn

Isobel Gunn, Audrey Thomas's eighth novel, is the heart-rending tale of a poor Orkney woman who tries to escape her tragic family circumstances by disguising herself as a man and running away to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in northern Canada. Her deception is uncovered when she gives birth to a son. Quickly deported back to Orkney, Isobel dies over half a century later still awaiting her son's return. Like many of Thomas's fictions, this work revolves around lost children, in this case more explicitly than in most. A number of them surface in this novel, not least a remote descendant of Isobel's, killed in the battle of Scapa Flow just near her final resting place. Such coincidences provide little consolation for the book's characters, including Magnus Inkster, the clergyman narrator, who finds his faith coming unstuck as he contemplates Isobel's misfortunes and begins to doubt the author-like schemes of his god. Isobel Gunn is a more seamless, less self-conscious narrative than much of Thomas's work. Having her male narrator tell his own tale allows her to withdraw from the distanced, meta-critical voice familiar to readers of her other books. The commentary is still there, but subtler and more nuanced, which should help Isobel Gunn garner Thomas a wider audience and the recognition she deserves. --Robyn Gillam