Island (MacLeod, Alistair) 2000

This is a collection of short stories by the Bard of Nova Scotia (or so I'm lead to believe by the jacket). I read everything through "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood", then began skimming through the next two stories, then skipped ahead to "Island". The themes running through just about every story are about generational change in the people of Nova Scotia, usually fixing upon the generation in which many of the children leave for Montreal or Toronto in order to lead a "better life" than the traditional Nova Scotian careers of fishing, lobstering, and mining can provide, and also about the awkwardness for their remaining family (especially the parents) who find the continuity of their lives disrupted/altered by these leavings. The problem is that the first story, "The Boat", and the fourth story, "The Return" cover this ground perfectly, and the rest (at least the parts I've read) feel a bit recycled.

Still, you should all go out and read "The Boat" and "The Return".