Greenvoe, the tight-knit community on the Orcadian island of Hellya, has existed unchanged for generations. However, a sinister military/industrial project, Operation Black Star, requires the island for unspecified purposes & threatens the islanders` way of life. In this, his first novel (1972), George Mac Kay Brown recreates a week in the life of the island community as they come to terms with the destructiveness of Operation Black Star. A whole host of characters
- The Skarf, failed fishermen & Marxist historian; Ivan Westray, boatman & dallier; pious creeler Samuel Whaness; drunken fishermen Bert Kerston; earth-mother Alice Voar, & meths-drinker Timmy Folster
- are vividly brought to life in this sparkling mixture of prose & poetry. In the end Operation Black Star fails, but not before it has ruined the isl&. But the book ends on a note of hope as the islanders return to celebrate the ritual rebirth of Hellya.