The Bird Artist by Howard Norman was published in 1994 and it is one of the many books which Peggy Ann brought from America for me when she visited us in May.

The book begins; My name is Fabian Vas. I live in Witless Bay Newfoundland. You would not have heard of me. Obscurity is not necessarily failure, though; I am a bird artist, and have more or less made a living at it. Yet I murdered the lighthouse keeper, Botho August, and that is an equal part of how I think of myself.

It’s set in the early 1900s in a small community where life is hard and everyone knows everybody’s business.

One person’s infidelity has a disastrous effect on some of the inhabitants and the story is told by Fabian, despite his confession to murder at the very beginning, I couldn’t help being happy that as he was telling the tale it meant that he hadn’t paid the usual price for it. A good read.

I googled Witless Bay never expecting it to actually exist – but it does, and it looks gorgeous. If you’re interested in seeing photographs of it have a look here.