Muckle Flugga

By Michael Pedersen

Life on a remote island is turned upside down by a stranger’s arrival, testing bonds of family and tradition and leaving a young dreamer’s future hanging in the balance.

It’s no ordinary existence on the rugged isle of Muckle Flugga. The elements run riot and the very rocks that shape the place begin to shift under their influence. The only human inhabitants are the lighthouse keeper, known as The Father, and his otherworldly son, Ouse. Them, and the occasional lodger to keep the wolf from the door.

When one of those lodgers – Firth, a chaotic writer – arrives from Edinburgh, the limits of the world the keeper and his son cling to begin to crumble. A tug of war ensues between Firth and the lighthouse keeper for Ouse’s affections – and his future. As old and new ways collide, and life-changing decisions loom, what will the tides leave standing in their wake?

Reviews of Muckle Flugga

'A kaleidoscopic and linguistically daring work . . . Scintillating.' OCEAN VUONG
'A quirky and original debut that sizzles with scintillating prose.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
'Michael Pedersen is a rare writer of real passion and power and this debut is phenomenal.' MATT HAIG
Muckle Flugga is so vivid, intense and fiercely tragic-comic that it often threatens to take the breath away. — Joyce McMillan ― Scotsman
The writer's love of language is joyful – the descriptions of flora and fauna bring the island to life, becoming a character in its own right. Sitting in the long and lauded literary tradition of the Scottish Gothic, Muckle Flugga is, at its heart, a treatise on grief, but it's also a celebration of life and what it means to be human; often flawed but with the potential to be fantastic. — Alistair Braidwood ― The Skinny