The Foreshore

Synopsis

The best historical fiction books of 2025 –The Sunday Times

In the wake of a deadly storm, past sins return to haunt the living…

Eilean Eòin is a tiny scrap of land which is stranded amidst miles of fierce ocean, where the scant population barely cling to a centuries’ old way of life. It is here that Flora McKinnon, an aging islander, is brought news of her youngest child’s death, whilst tensions are riled by the arrival of a new reverend, Thomas Murray. Murray has a mission: to weed out religious dissent and purge the island in the name of progress.

When a strange young woman is found washed up on the foreshore, illness and famine start to blight the island, stirring whispers of witchcraft. Despite their differences, Flora and Murray unite in an uneasy attempt to solve the mystery of the girl’s identity, which soon becomes an all-consuming obsession. With their own deep-buried skeletons, will the island's dark secrets make or break them both?

Praise for this Book

‘A brilliant debut novel with a haunting premise that drives the narrative’s undercurrent of foreboding.’ —Kerry Hadley-Pryce

Reviews of this Book

‘On a remote Scottish island in the early 18th century a barely breathing young woman washes ashore. Flora McKinnon, who has just lost her son in an accident, ignores the mutterings of her superstitious fellow islanders and their talk of witchcraft and takes the initially comatose woman into her care. Her ally in tending to the castaway is Thomas Murray, a stiff-necked clergyman from the mainland who has arrived on the island to offer its inhabitants spiritual succour, only to learn that they have little interest in it. As the mystery of the young woman’s identity persists, McKinnon and Murray discover the island harbours secrets that threaten the peace of mind of both of them. Past sins loom over the present in a debut novel that strikingly summons up the isolated community in which it is set.’ —Nick Rennison, The Sunday Times

‘Glasgow-based writer Samantha York grew up on the Northumberland coast before moving to Scotland. The sea, it seems, seeped into her soul and out through her pen in this atmospheric, 18th Century-set novel. An accomplished debut, it opens as a boat is rowed to shore bearing the ocean battered body of the youngest son of protagonist Flora McKinnon.’ —Sally McDonald, The Sunday Post