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Skellig

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David Almond: Skellig author

Skellig

Michael and his family have moved into a new house that is in bad repair. He and his parents are anxious as his new baby sister has been born prematurely and may not live. When Michael goes into the garage, amid all the boxes, debris and dead insects he finds a strange human-like creature who seems to have almost wasted away. At first Michael is not even sure the creature is real or a product of his imagination but decides to look after him and takes him food, though he is crotchety and arthritic, demanding aspirin, Chinese food and brown ale. Michael hears a story that human shoulder blades are a vestige of angel wings. Meanwhile his friends from school become more and more distant as Michael stops attending school and so spends less time with them.

He meets a girl named Mina who lives opposite his house, who is home schooled and is interested in nature, drawing and poems by William Blake to which her parents introduced her. She takes care of some baby birds who live in her yard and teaches Michael to hear their tiny sounds. Michael decides to introduce her to the strange old man. As the dilapidated garage is to be demolished the two children move their new companion out of the garage and into an abandoned house that is held in trust for Mina. They discover that he has wings, although they are dry and folded up, and that he seems young and beautiful, contrary to the impression the author had created in the first few chapters.

Michael asks about arthritis and how to cure it, talking to doctors and patients in the hospital where his baby sister is being treated. Cod liver oil begins to heal the strange being. The owls, whose company he has enjoyed while living in the old house, bring him mice to eat. He, Michael and Mina share a mystical experience in which they fly and can see ghostly wings sprouting from each others' shoulder blades. Michael finds he can feel the heartbeat of his baby sister and starts to believe that love can help people to get better.

Michael's baby sister comes dangerously close to death and must undergo heart surgery. His mother goes to hospital to stay with the baby and, that night, dreams or sees a man come in, pick up the baby and play and dance with her. The strange being disappears and the baby survives. Michael maintains his friendship with Mina, as well as with his classmates, and develops his artistic side. Mina paints a picture that Michael's mother recognizes as the man she saw in the hospital. At the end of the novel, everyone is finally happy. The baby is named Joy.

[edit] Religious, scientific, and cultural references
The book is deliberately ambiguous about the nature of "Skellig"[1] and does not, in fact, give that name to the stranger. Although the obvious implication is that he is some kind of angel, his general demeanor and attitude contrasts with traditional ideas about angels, leading the reader to consider ideas of religious imagery and the role of mysteries in life. There are obvious religious references in the text but, like the poet William Blake (who is quoted in the novel), many of them revolve around unconventional religious concepts. Early in the novel there are numerous references to evolution, some in a spiritual context.

The names "Skellig" and "Michael" are possibly derived from the Skellig Michael Island off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland. St Michael is also the name of an archangel. Mina is most likely a diminutive of Wilhemina, a female form of the name "William", as Mina's parents are devotees of William Blake. The short text brings in so many ideas that readers and critics report widely divergent ideas of "what the book is about". Short speeches on art, love, health, life and death, evolution, art, nature, Blake, education and family share a common context.

In his research article "Magical Realism and the Child Reader: The Case of David Almond's Skellig", Don Latham compares Almond's novel to Gabriel García Márquez's short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings". Latham states that despite the many similarities between the two works, Almond's child protagonists are much more caring and accepting than the close-minded and sometimes cruel adults in Márquez's story. Also, Mina and Michael keep Skellig a secret from the rest of human society. Thus, while still expressing negative comments on medical institutions and other aspects of adult society, the social commentary in Skellig is not as harsh as in Márquez's story. However, Almond himself has acknowledged that "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" had some influence on the writing of Skellig