Pharos: A Ghost Story
On Jacob’s Rock, a remote lighthouse on the coast of Scotland, a young woman is washed up on shore in the early 19th century. She has no name, no memory, no past, no future. She is named Lucia by the lighthouse keeper, Cameron, a man who has lived for years in utter solitude. Soon an assistant lighthouse keeper, Simon, joins them. From the minute he reaches Jacob’s Rock, he is capable of animism – bringing to life puppets he creates, his life filled with magic. Later, Cameron’s sister joins the three, who live together in a type of nuclear family, isolated from the rest of the world. But darkness and evil surround Jacob’s Rock. A slave ship sunk ten years before, and the slaves who sank manacled to their benches, knit a terrible shroud for those at the lighthouse.
In terse passages, Thompson, a talented Scottish writer, paints a bleak, confusing and tantalizing tale. We never quite know who is what, and the denouement is unpredictable and creative. There is not much to place this tale in historical context, other than the backdrop of the slave trade. It is the absolute isolation of Jacob’s Rock and the interplay between distinctive, eccentric characters both timely and timeless.
A very quick read, haunting, and well worth the time.
