Anyone who’s been to ‘The Rock’ knows Newfoundlanders love to tell stories. I can’t think of any Newfoundland and Labrador author more accomplished than Michael Crummey.
Over a span of six novels, from River Thieves (2001) to The Adversary (2023), Crummey has wrangled and harnessed Newfoundland English, transforming an ever-changing spoken vernacular into prose – a difficult task, one he’s discharged with flying colours.
Each of Crummey’s novels is both a haunting tale and a feast of words. He spins splendid descriptions and memorable dialogs. If you want to hear Newfoundland and feel it too, pick up a Crummey novel.
Crummey’s latest, The Adversary, winner of the 2025 International Dublin Literary Award, catapults the reader to the fishing port of Mockbeggar, Newfoundland. It’s the late 1700s. One year the Atlantic is choked with cod; the next, it’s barren. One day the sky is clear; the next, it’s a howling grey wolf. The novel delivers an evocative tale, an unsparing story of two warring siblings.
PS: List of Michael Crummey novels in order of publication: River Thieves (2001); The Wreckage (2005); Galore (2009); Sweetland (2014); The Innocents (2019); The Adversary (2023). Crummey has also published poetry, short stories, and non-fiction. For further information, see the author on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crummey.
North Noir 