The Midwinter Capstan

About this book

On the Hebridean isle of Skerra, a mile of riveted brass holds back the Atlantic. For seventy years the Breathing Dyke has kept the crofts dry, and every Midwinter the parish turns the Great Capstan together to reset its pressure. This year, when sixty-eight-year-old peat-cutter Morag MacNeil lays her rope-scarred hands on the spokes, the pipes sing off-key. Behind her stand three other keepers of the old knowledge, each hiding something the rest must never learn. And from Glasgow comes an offer of modern iron caissons — at the price of the common grazing, the guild charter, and everything the dyke was built to protect. As a storm gathers over the wall, four aging islanders must decide what their hands are truly holding onto.