The Cone-Gatherers — Robin Jenkins

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).