Longlisted for the Orange Prize 2012. 1830. Neil & Lizzie Mac Kenzie a newly married young couple arrive at the remotest part of the British Isles: St Kilda. He is a minister determined to save the souls of the pagan inhabitants; his pregnant wife speaks no Gaelic & when her husband is away has only the waves & the cry of gulls for company. As both find themselves tested to the limit in this harsh new environment Lizzie soon discovers that marriage is as treacherous a country as the land that surrounds her.