Coastliners by Joanne Harris ~ my review

Coastliners by Joanne Harris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In her novel Coastliners, Joanne Harris takes us to a tiny island in the cold Atlantic three hours by ferry from the coast of France just below Brittany. Two small villages there, one rich, the other poor, seethe with jealousy and condescension. Two islander families stubbornly carry on a longstanding feud. In addition to making their living, residents must fight to keep harsh storms and high waters from demolishing their homes. Islanders’ Catholic faith slides easily into superstition when the tides seem to turn against them.

Into this culture arrives our narrator, Mado. Because she is originally from this island, the culture is no surprise. What does alarm her is the extent to which tidal flooding has destroyed her village during her absence. She and a newcomer, an Irish drifter, put their heads together to engineer a solution. One challenge leads to another, and Mado eventually cancels her apartment lease in Paris and decides to make the island her home again.

What I most liked reading in Coastliners were relational subplots. Mado tries to reconcile with her taciturn father and to figure out why the rich entrepreneur from the other side of the island goes out of his way to give her gifts and why the Irish drifter helps her father and others to fix things and why her estranged sister suddenly returns. Mado gets involved in all the local families’ dramas as well. Little mysteries pop up everywhere.

I overlooked French stereotypes because I just wanted to enjoy the story. I got a little tired of all the dramatic rescue operations when islanders’ boats got caught in storms. That Harris makes mainland France and Mado’s life in Paris virtually disappear seemed a little weird. Mado also has a mercurial temperament; I found her difficult to know and like. And her relationship with Flynn, the Irish drifter … Was it romance? Was it hatred? Was it friendship? I was always off-balance with that aspect. Despite these drawbacks, all the little human-interest mysteries kept me engaged.



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