Place: Sweetland by Michael Crummey

Set on an outlying island off the island of Newfoundland, Michael Crummey’s novel Sweetland shows us one introvert’s unreasonably powerful attachment to home.

Starting in 1946 and continuing into this century, the government of Newfoundland decided to close down hundreds of long-settled islands and remote outposts in its territory, so as to save the trouble and expense of providing transportation, electricity, education and other services to scantily populated locations.  Residents were offered big money to move to cities or larger towns, with a catch:  Every adult resident in their location had to agree to resettle.

The 2014 novel Sweetland, by Michael Crummey, portrays a curmudgeonly old bachelor named Moses Sweetland who resists leaving his small Newfoundland island.  His ancestors founded it, and he’s lived his whole life there, except for some bouts of work in Toronto.  His neighbors, along with a representative of the government, pressure him to accept the resettlement deal.  A few threaten him anonymously by killing the rabbits in his snares.