Stoneset Odds

Five years ago, Asa was a happy child but now she teeters on the brink of self-destruction. At seventeen, she worries about her obsessive pebble collection and a hidden secret past. Asa gathers evidence, which points conclusively to one fact - Asa will become another one of a line of notorious and abused females.

Asa is popular, attractive and gifted in her own way - an autistic tendency inhibits her to recognise inference and innuendo – and a tense relationship with her jealous sister, Jane, and her cold-natured mother, Inga, have created an underlining emotional fragility in Asa. Left alone as a child while Inga meets men, Asa’s granny and her Norwegian friend, Oskar, bring some stability into Asa’s life but the old couple have retreated from the world. Asa’s friends, Rosie and Julietta try to bring her into the world, but they are too forward and self-assured and the incidents the three girls delve into with boys end up in disaster for Asa.

Soon to leave to Glasgow - from her island home in sight of the north of Scotland - Asa is anxious to find out what type of woman she will become and after two difficult relationships with a policeman, Lachlan, and a young farmer, Dave, she is firmly convinced she will end up callously bouncing from one empty and abusive relationship to another. Resigned to this, she considers she might as well begin behaving as the women of her family’s renowned reputation. However, a last hope remains - the essence of the Island. This wisdom was not formed in fact, so how can Asa understand how it could save her?