The acclaimed novel of brothers working on a Scottish estate during WWII “has a strange haunting poetic quality…a fable of eternal significance” (Iain Crichton Smith). As World War II rages through Europe, brothers Calum and Neil work to gather pinecones in the grounds of a Scottish estate. Once the forest is cut down to support the war effort, the cones will be used to replenish what is lost. For simple, mis-shapen Calum, who cannot stand to witness the suffering of others, it is an ideal job far from the terrors of war. But when Calum releases two mutilated rabbits from a snare, he comes face to face with Duror, the pitiless and obsessive gamekeeper. In retaliation for Calum’s betrayal, Duror lays a trap for the cone-gatherers. Having grown more cynical than his brother, Neil prophesizes that forces of evil will eventually encroach upon the harmony of their lives. It is a prophesy that comes true when Duror commits an act so brutal it destroys all sense of humanity in the once thriving wood. “A masterpiece of concision and terrible pathos, ” Robin Jenkins’ The Cone-Gatherers is a haunting story of love and violence, and an investigation of class-conflict, war, and envy (Isobel Murray).
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