Sweetland

Sweetland is a novel by Canadian author Michael Crummey, first published in 2014 by W.W. Norton & Company. Set on a small island in Newfoundland, it tells the story of an old man who has the same name as the island on which he lives: Sweetland. With the island struggling economically and people relocating to the mainland, the government offers the remaining residents the opportunity to resettle elsewhere. But with great change comes great struggle, and the man named Moses Sweetland must navigate the idea of living in a world outside of the island, light-years away from the place he calls home.

When the government proposes a resettlement package to get the residents off the dying island for good, most take the offer—many happily, a few reluctantly. One of the only holdouts is Moses, and this has makes him the focus of the townspeople's attentions. The government offer is only valid if every resident accepts the resettlement package. So, with Moses refusing to accept it, no one gets the generous sums of money the government will pay.

In time, the few holdouts to the deal cave in and agree, leaving Moses the lone objector. The townspeople grow angry. They send him anonymous threats of violence. They vandalize his property. They even set fire to his home.



Moses, however, is no stranger to pressure. He used to be a fisherman, back when the island was a hub for the North Atlantic fishing industry. Over the centuries, the fisheries depleted the area's sea-life resources, so the government enacted a moratorium on fishing. Out of a job, Moses then became the town's lighthouse keeper. Years went by, and, eventually, there was no use for him there either, as the lighthouse switched to a fully automated model. Now, the town is once again forcing him out of the only life he knows.

Meanwhile, Moses maintains some positive relationships with a few of the people in town. He spends most of his time with his grand-nephew Jesse, who is autistic. Moses tells stories about his younger days, about relatives who died long ago (especially of Moses's brother, Hollis), and about the island and its past, much to Jesse's delight. Moses fears what will happen to Jesse if the two of them have to leave the island.

Moses drops in frequently at the long-shuttered barbershop of his friend Duke Fewer. There, a few other friends are also invariably assembled as well, making it the perfect setting to trade gossip and war stories and play board games.



At home, Moses keeps house and looks after his property. At one point in the story, a cow belonging to his neighbor falls ill, and Moses provides lifesaving help.
So, at the end of the day, Moses's life still has purpose. He only wishes that everyone in town could see that.

One day, Moses and Jesse take advantage of their annual fishing privileges—the government grants residents only one fishing trip per year in their efforts to repopulate the sea life—and the two set out to catch cod. But the trip is anything but the respite Moses hopes it will be. The residents of the island unleash their ire on him and Jesse as the two try to go fishing. After returning home later in the day, Moses no longer has the will to fight. He agrees to take the resettlement offer. After signing the agreement, Jesse dies.

Flashbacks to different periods of Moses's life pepper the narrative. One series of flashbacks centers on a boat of Sri Lankan refugees who Moses rescues when he works as a fisherman. He brings them to the island, and he draws much attention from the town and from the media. Around this same time, he learns of his sister's infidelities and feels guilty, because he was the one who pressured her into the unhappy marriage in the first place. Flashbacks also tell the story of Moses's traumatic past and how he comes to live a largely solitary life.



After leaving the island, Moses fakes his death so he can secretly return. When he does, he looks forward to a life of isolation, away from the world of people and all their associated problems and pressures. Though he plans for the challenges of living off the land, he does not plan well enough. He can barely keep himself warm and fed. Now alone in the world, Moses misses the community that once brought him so much pain. He starts seeing strange lights and ghostly images and can no longer distinguish fantasy from reality. After coming upon a dog, the two form a deep bond, but it is not enough to save Moses. He narrowly misses death on multiple occasions in his struggle to survive on the island. In the end, he realizes that death is inevitable for Sweetland—both for the island and for the man.