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In 1939, on the eve of the second world war, two young Cambridge ornithologists arrive on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island, sent by the Government to survey the island's birds. For Robert, it is the fulfillment of his dream to find the elusive Leach's Petrel - a bird that only makes landfall to breed on outlying islands. For John, it is a chance to learn from his talented mentor. With them on the island are Kirk, the authoritarian leaseholder, and his niece Ellen, a young woman who dreams of the stars of silent comedy. Left alone on a scrap of land, surrounded by the vast Atlantic, the boys, Kirk and Ellen observe each other, are drawn together, and, ultimately, take a journey which pushes at the limits of what it is to be human. Poetic, intense and gripping, Outlying Islands is a glimpse of an innocence, a way of seeing and a way of being young that is about to be destroyed forever.

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Author: David Greig