Oona grew up on the island of Inis: a wind-blasted rock off the coast of Ireland. There, the men went out on fishing boats and the women tended turf fires, the only book was the Bible, and girls stayed at home until they became mothers themselves. Even as a child, Oona knew she wanted to escape island life, but she never could have anticipated the tumultuous turn of events that would ultimately compel her to flee.

Twenty years later, after Oona has forged a new, very different life for herself, her daughter vanishes, forcing Oona to face her past in order, finally, to be free of it. Heralding a singularly gifted new voice in fiction, The Island Child is a timeless story of birth and betrayal, storms, shipwrecks and fairy children, and the weight of long-buried secrets.