A Highland Trilogy: Dan, The Summer is Ended, West of the World
Kenneth Steven2002

"A Highland Trilogy" brings together three very different novels, united by a single unifying strand.

"Dan" , nominated for the Scottish Saltire Award, tells the tender story of the last day in the life of a hill farmer as he looks back over the years, and laments the decline of the Highland way of life he so loved, every step pressing on memories reaching back through a century of war and migration.

In "The Summer is Ended" a boy not only comes to terms with leaving his Argyll home, but must also struggle against an oppressive sense of isolation and loss after the death of his best friend.

"West of the World", the final novel in Kenneth Steven's trilogy, is narrated by one of the last inhabitants of St Kilda. From the day his people were exiled from their island, this adopted American looks back on the strange journey of his life and how he has learnt to live with the insatiable yearning to return home.

Three journeys by three very different men, each concerned with the land and with the mystical umbilical that attaches them to the moor and rock of home. Embedded in each is the cornerstone of Gaelic - in terms of language and psyche - but integral to all is the possession of land and how, in turn, the land comes to possess them.

Titre original : A Highland Trilogy: Dan, The Summer is Ended, West of the World (2002)