The Stones of Burren Bay
“The Stones of Burren Bay,” a YA novel by Emily De Angelis begins with poetry. A woman plants a tree, a seedling and surrounds the tree with limestone shards. The tree grows and she orients around it, finally cutting it down one day “in its old age,/ hundreds of linear feet of wood/ for fire and furniture/ for a small narrow box/ to hold a painter’s brush.” Yet, throughout this relationship with the tree and after the removal of it, “the stone circle sits.” This poem is rooted in the orientation of the characters that will follow in this novel and the lives they lead, the trauma and adversity they endure become a metaphor of the stones that remain long after removal, loss and pain.
The novel follows the tragic inciting incidents surrounding 15-year-old Norie’s life. First, she loses her beloved grandmother and in a state of agonizing events, her father is killed in a fatal car accident with Norie and her mother Alice left wounded and estranged, almost having died themselves. Tied to these events is the presence of a family heirloom, an antique wooden artist’s box made from the tree of a planted sapling, passed on down through the generations. This antique box, the last cherished residue of Norie’s grandmother, has perished in the car accident as well and Norie is left crippled emotionally, grieving, angry and unable to express herself artistically. The gift and talent of painting and drawing has carried on through the line of women in Norie’s family and her one outlet of expression is blocked. Caring for her fragile and wounded mother, Norie reaches out to a name of her mother’s oldest friend who has sent a card. Norie and her mother go and stay with her mother’s friend, Dahlia, her husband and her teenage daughter Wil. What follows is a cathartic plotline of facing grief and loss on a rugged and enchanting landscape at Burren Bay Lighthouse Museum on Manitoulin Island. Tones of Celtic spiritualism, magic realism and the supernatural are braided through a story of what life is like after crises.
The presence of artistry and craft in the novel stem from the author’s own personal history, which makes for an intriguing and catching story. Emily De Angelis is born from a family of visual artists, musicians and storytellers. With the support of the Humber School for Writers, an Ontario Arts Council grant for Northern Works in Progress, De Angelis has presented a YA novel of imagination and eloquently fluid prose: “The Stones of Burren Bay has come into being like sedimentary rock- bits and pieces of stuff blown together over the years into layers of character and plot, setting and theme, and then heated and compressed by the warmth and weight of editing and revision.” De Angelis has written short stories, poetry and is published in anthologies and periodicals. “The Stones of Burren Bay,” is her debut YA novel.
I was absorbed into the novel through the descriptive landscapes of cliffs and rocky shores, moved by weather that played expertly on pathetic fallacy with the accelerating plotline. Fire, storms and muggy summer days fogged into each other revealing deeper undertones of Celtic spiritualism, matrilineal connections and supernatural forces that made for an engulfing story. The reader will meet a character named Oonagh and it is the merging of these two young womens’ parallel lives that I feel many readers will take away from the novel that makes for a crossroads of analysis and contemplation for YA readers. De Angelis articulates that it is this intersection between Norie and Oonagh that builds Magic Realism into the novel. “It is the merging of Norie’s modern life with Oonagh’s spiritual existence that is magical and extra-ordinary. I knew that setting the novel on Manitoulin Island or Spirit Island, as it is called, would be a perfect fit for this kind of spiritual experience. The Island has been home to the Anishinaabe people for centuries, long before white settlers arrived. When you’re there, it’s clear that it’s a place steeped in spirit and sacredness.” Indeed, the atmosphere and tone of the novel is made more special with this carefully laid world-building that is believable and unforgettable narrative residue.
Norie is an important character for YA readers as she honestly works through pain, not always gracefully or kindly, and struggles with self-identity. Her character is relatable and sometimes not likeable, which is the rawness of her humanness. The reading experience will push for compassion and understanding for a YA reader. De Angelis herself states that “youth need to see themselves as protagonists in their own stories, where artistic expression is fundamental to their personhood and self-identity. This is especially relevant in a world full of social and political dysfunction, global conflict and fear.” I envision this novel as a refreshing new read in Canadian English classrooms for students working through their own adversity, while potentially becoming engaged in historical and cultural understandings of their locality.
I love when writer’s cleanly tie in motif and metaphor and De Angelis does this with stones in her novel. Stones represent characters and show how interconnected people become as community by sharing the land. We can learn from each other, feel for each other and become inspired by each other.
Thank you to Emily De Angelis, Latitude 46 Publishing and River Street Writing for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!
Sources
https://youngadulting.ca/2024/07/01/5-questions-for-emily-de-angelis/
https://alllitup.ca/first-fiction-friday-the-stones-of-burren-bay/
