Sweetland

The residents of a tiny island of the south coast of Newfoundland are targeted for relocation. Avoiding having to provide essential services to the isolated crag means the government can offer every resident $100K to leave - but everyone has to accept. Moses Sweetland is the lone standout.

It doesn't seem enough to frame a book around but Michael Crummey is an absolutely beautiful writer, and native Newfoundlander, who writes incredibly living and unique characters. From Moses himself to the chain-smoking, romance reading Queenie Coffin who hasn't left her house in 40 years. Or the shit-disturbing, good-time newfies, the Priddle brothers.

You can read as a meditation on dealing with a terminal illness, or maybe an elegy to a lost way of life for many Newfoundlanders. But even at it face value it's an incredibly good read.