The Fisherman’s gift is a delight to read. I loved reading about life in a small fishing village in Skerry during the 1900. Life was hard for the villagers and it was made up of a close community that knew everything about one another and there was much gossip.
Dorothy, a teacher, has come to this small fisherman’s village to teach the children. She is a very private person and appears to have a cold personality to the people living there.
She falls in love with Joseph, a fisherman. Joseph also loves Dorothy. The love they have for each other has so many problems with another lady, Agnes, who has already picked Joseph for herself and will do anything to keep him.
A young boy is found on the shores one cold snowy morning. Dorothy thinks the child looks like her son, Moses, who was lost at sea many years ago.
Secrets come to light in this small village and peace is finally realized by this small fishing village.
I loved reading this story and would highly recommend it.
An ARC was given to me from the author and netgalley for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It’s 1900 in Skerry…..
The setting is a small fishing and crofting village in Scotland.
We begin in winter…..the village is soon snowed in.
We meet Dorothy, a teacher, who will look after a child who was washed up at sea …..his survival is miraculous….yet nobody knows who he belongs to.
The boy looks like Dorothy’s own lost child, Moses, who was lost to the sea fifteen years before at the same age.
“The boys arrival also finally forces Dorothy to face the truth about her brief and passionate affair with Joseph, the fisherman who found the boy on the shore, and who has been the subject of whispers, connecting him to the drowning of Dorothy‘s son years earlier”.

Julia R. Kelly won the Blue Pencil First Novel Award in 2021.
She has been longlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize, the Mslexia Award (women’s writings)….and the PenguinWriteNow, and the Bath Novel Award.
“The Fisherman’s Gift” is my first time reading Julia R. Kelly.
I carved Julia R. Kelly’s name in-stone in my memory bank.
I’ll read her next book in a second.

A personal share:
Earlier this year I read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt … a book that examines the rising levels of anxiety and depression among young people. The author investigates societal, technological, and cultural factors contributing to this crisis and suggests ways to foster resilience and mental well-being.
The book changed me — keeps changing me - and I’m 72 years old…..with no kids at home.
But I, too, have felt anxiety from being reachable all the time. I miss the days when people only had three ways to contact me. They could call me and leave a message on my phone, they could write me a letter, or they could come to my house and knock on the door. That was it.
So …….
…..while reading Julia’s book, “The Fisherman’s Gift” ….a story about love, grief, loss, mystery, secrets, painful memories, hardships, universal misunderstandings, resentments, tension, sacrifice, heartbreak, maternal fears, shame, guilt, forgiveness, community connections, women,
“Good Enough Mother’s” ……more love…..etc…
I thought deeply about how life was when devices were nonexistent. Of course there are advantages today for all of our techie-toys…..(we can’t seem to live without them)….
but this story - this community- touched my heart in a way that made me miss simpler days of navigating them.
I had a taste for the small town quality of life — more open space — a small number of ‘meaningful-relationships’ and ‘community-minded-folks’. [note…I live in the global center of high technology of silicon Valley]. Living in a remote small village sounds appealing to at my age.

In ‘The Fisherman’s Gift’, I relished the visuals….smells….and atmospheric feelings.
I enjoyed the surprise-prose-storytelling-creativities, the tenderness, and the delicate sensibilities from which this book was written.
I was so immersed in this story — so involved in the character’s lives — (of course not all perfect- but very human) ….. I could have kept reading for another hundred pages (rare for me).
I had a deep emotional connection to this story (for many reasons: some personal)…..Mostly I really appreciated how unassuming- and quiet this book felt to me.
…I kept thinking it’s soooo nice to read an engrossing story/with an old fashion wholesome flare…..atmospheric beauty…..
before cell phones, before social media became part of our modern life: cyberbullying, disrupt sleep, social isolation, depression, fear of missing out, low self-esteem, addiction, privacy, concerns, anxiety, increase stress, self image, issues, security, threats….etc. ……
I’m simply noticing more recently the effect that a wonderful novel has on me — in its purest form.
This book was written in purest form. It’s a book to curl up with.
And kudos to the person who wrote the blurb….
Absolutely…..this book is for readers who were captivated with the novels “The Light Between Oceans” and “The Snow Child”.

Gorgeous writing….enraptured narration…stunning book cover…..
And an author whom I felt “I could be friends with”.
Having grown-up without a television, (but lots of books), Julia read everything she could get her hands on. As an English teacher, she has tried to pass on her love to the next generation of readers and writers. Since being confined to a wheelchair, Julia has learned to appreciate even more fully the journeys the written word can take us on.
She lives in Herefordshire with her partner in between them, they have raised five wonderful children.

This is a story of grief.… and coming to terms with it through Dorothy‘s growing relationship with a new child.
Maternal fear — the fear that somehow she failed her son, Moses, haunted Dorothy more and more as her memories returned.
The author shared with us that at some point she became aware that this story is one that all mothers might relate to if what all they remember is what they did wrong.
As the author was writing this novel, it became more and more clear to her that she was writing a novel about maternal shame.
Whew!!! Boy oh boy! Can I ever relate. Painful memories and grief live inside me —
Our older daughter (who was hospitalized five times; anorexic as a teenager) is forty-two years old today (recovered, thank God)- but about four years ago she stopped talking to my husband and I. We haven’t seen her in at least ten years. Estrangement is the most lonely, shameful, sad, rejected word in my life. …. so, yes…. I related to the author’s protagonist: Dorothy, who felt shame and grief for having failed her son, Moses.

When the author, Julia, thought back about memories with her own child, remembering the books they read together, she realized that she had been a Good Enough Mother. Same here, Julia! Me too. My daughter and I read many books together with wonderful memories! Happiest days!
Julia wanted to extend her message to many mothers who only remembered things they could’ve done better. That they too, were a Good Enough Mother.
THANK YOU, Julia!!!!

Julia also shared (I agree) it’s a book for ‘all’ women … women who share meaningful communication… godsip talk, women’s talk, intimate-talk with other women. Julia shared that it’s the absence of meaningful communication that often causes so much misery and so much misunderstanding for some people… And for some of her characters in “The Fisherman’s Gift”.
“It is ultimately only through friendship that the women of my novel find true connection and solidarity”.

As my famous last saying goes for a book I so thoroughly enjoyed….. “It’s SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!

The Fisherman's Gift is a fine historical fiction read. I liked the writing style and the setting. The middle portion of the story read a bit too romance for me and I thought Dorothy's upbringing didn't fully explain her odd combination of naiveness and aloofness. This made the book a three rather than a four star for me. I always think the author carried on too long at the end wrapping all the storylines up. A perfect last line was at the end of the chapter titled The Last Morning (p. 185). I see this book being enjoyed widely.