Title: Close Knit
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrator: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: August 6, 2024
Print length: 318 pages
Audio length: 10 hours, 31 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased (audiobook); E-book ARC from the publisher/NetGalley
Rating:
Follow Gertie MacIntyre from knitting circle to air stewardess in this glorious and romantic summer novel set in Scotland’s windswept Northern isles, by beloved New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan.
In the northernmost reaches of Scotland, where a string of little islands in the North Sea stretches towards Norway, lives Gertie MacIntyre, a proud island girl by birth. Her social circle is small but tight: family and friends, particularly the women in her knitting circle. In the whitewashed cottages of their hometown, everyone knows everyone, and the ladies of the knitting circle know more than most. In a place of long dark winters and geographic isolation, the knitting circle is a precious source of gossip, home, laughter, and comfort for them all. And while she knits, Gertie’s busily plotting what to do with the rest of her life.
When Gertie develops a crush on Callum Frost, who owns the local airline, she dares herself to take a job as an air stewardess on the little plane that serves the local islands. Terrifying at first, the sixteen-seat puddle jumper also offers the first taste of real freedom she’s ever known. Will Gertie’s future lie in the skies? Or will she need to go further afield to find the adventure she craves?
Yet another gem from Jenny Colgan! Her books are opportunities to be swept away to beautiful places and experience lovely communities — but also, to laugh, to be amused, and to see people doing both amazing and silly things.
(Quick note: The synopsis — above — found on Goodreads, NetGalley, Amazon and elsewhere gets the main character’s name wrong! Her name is Gertie Mooney, and she ends up working for MacIntyre Air. Moving on…)
Close Knit takes place in the small town of Carso, located “in the very North of Scotland” on the sea. From Carso, across the water, is a chain of small islands, accessible only by ferry or by air — and MacIntyre Air’s small planes are the primary way the locals and tourists get there, taking off from the tiny airport (really, more like a tin shed) and flown by Morag, her grandfather, or another long-time pilot.
Gertie, born and raised in Carso, lives with her mother and grandmother, and has never flown in an airplane or ventured away from her small community. Her life revolves around her job at the supermarket and knitting — her tiny home is stuffed to the brim with wool and knitwear, and every day, the KCs — the women of the Knitting Circle — come to the Mooney home to knit and gossip, and to tell Gertie what to do with her life.
Gertie is sweet and very shy, and finds comfort in constant daydreaming (and knitting). She dreams of romance, but after one daring attempt to woo an older boy in school (which did not end well), she rarely steps out of her safe routines.
When two girls she remembers from her school days end up in her store, she feels her own sense of inadequacy pop up — they were two years older, and seemed impossibly cool at the time. She doubts they’d even remember her now, but after seeing Gertie kindly take charge of a potentially awkward situation in the store, they make an unexpected offer. The two women are Morag, the pilot, and Nelitha, her very pregnant best friend who works as the airline’s ground crew. They need someone to take over for Nelitha as she starts her maternity leave… and although Gertie has no flight or airline experience, she clearly has a knack for dealing with customers.
The fact that Gertie has recently developed a crush on the man whose larger airline acquired MacIntyre Air is an added enticement — maybe she’ll get to see him regularly, and she can give him some beautiful handmade knitwear, and he’ll realize that this local girl is really the woman of his dreams! Ready to make a change in her life, Gertie accepts the job, as well as the offer of becoming Morag’s roommate… and her entire life changes.
Close Knit is not just Gertie’s story. Through Gertie, we meet a cast of characters that includes the town’s schoolchildren, the women of the KCs, musicians and teachers, airline crew, and a variety of other locals. Morag — introduced in the author’s previous book, The Summer Skies — gets her own chapters, and Gertie’s one-time crush/local schoolteacher Struan is also important to the overall story.
The town, the land and seascapes, and the islands are lovingly drawn, with descriptions so gorgeous that a reader will have a hard time refraining from immediately googling Carso and how to get there. (Sadly, it’s fictional). It’s not just the physical setting that’s wonderful — Jenny Colgan excels at creating a full community, with its quirky characters and habits, idle gossip and town lore, even its best places for coffee, ice cream, or chips. A section of the book set at the town’s cèilidh (dance) is delightfully engaging — and made me want to immediately head out and learn to dance Strip the Willow and The Gay Gordons.
In terms of The Summer Skies, in which Morag is the main character, I’d say Close Knit is more of a companion novel than a sequel. Timewise, it’s set after the events of The Summer Skies, but Close Knit can certainly be read as a stand-alone. The two novels together paint a picture of life in Carso. There’s a continuation of Morag’s story, but a reader picking up Close Knit can very comfortably follow the entire story and never feel lost, even without reading the previous book.
Lest you think that Close Knit is all just lovely people in a lovely place doing lovely things (okay, it is that, but there’s more!), the later part of the book centers around a dangerous situation that requires Morag and Gertie to get involved in a rescue operation. The tension is high and the action is compelling — and it’s an opportunity for the characters to shine, each in their own way. It’s an effective mix of great storytelling and showing the heart and inner strength of the characters, and makes for a completely absorbing reading/listening experience.
Some words on the audiobook itself: Once again, Eilidh Beaton is the narrator, and she is a marvel. She narrates several of Jenny Colgan’s books, and excels at voicing the variety of characters, from sweet Gertie to hesitant children to the suave-but-shallow airline owner, and really, each of the townspeople, older, younger, gruff, or kind. Each is quite distinctive and easily identifiable — and for this American listener, the Scottish accents are delightful to hear.
While Close Knit might be shelved by some readers as a romance, I’d categorize it as contemporary fiction that includes a romantic subplot. Yes, there is a love story in Close Knit, but it’s such a slowly building element of the story that it’s just one piece of the whole. Gertie’s growth and development is the main story here — over the course of the book, she learns to take chances, stop living only in her dreams, and create a new and meaningful life for herself. (As an introvert, I loved seeing such a shy, dreamy girl get a chance to shine!)
Gertie is a wonderful main character, and the town of Carso is a community I hope Jenny Colgan continues to explore in future books. Close Knit is a cozy, sweet, utterly enjoyable book, but that’s really no surprise. This author’s books have become can’t-miss reading experiences for me, and as always, I’ll be waiting for whatever she writes next!
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