![]() As their deaths occur in the winter when the ground is frozen, the parents must be buried at sea: Sarah by Sennet, Sennet by Evered, both wrenching and onerous tasks. Martha dies, then Sarah, and shortly after, Sennet, all victims of tuberculosis. ![]() The Bests’ is the most meager of livings, but it is about to be further diminished. The family’s survival has depended on catching, salting and drying cod to sell to a dealer who appears twice a year on the ship Hope-in autumn to collect the fish, in spring to deliver supplies. The Best family-Sennet, Sarah, and their children Evered, Ada and baby Martha-have lived in isolation on a small cove for as long as the two older children can remember. Like its predecessors, it is set against Newfoundland’s uncompromising land- and seascape, in this case in the first half of the 19th century. ‘T he Innocents’ is the Canadian poet and writer Michael Crummey’s fifth novel. ![]()
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