This is the first complete translation of Tomás O'Crohan's autobiography called in Irish An t-Oileánach, first published in 1929. This edition is based on Prof. Seán Ó Coileáin's definitive 2002 Irish language edition, it contains many passages omitted from the previous English language translation by Robin Flower from the 1930s, some of which were thought too earthy for the times. Tomás O'Crohan, a fisherman who, at around the age of forty, has taught himself to read and write in his own native tongue, depicts in unaffected, vivid and earthy language a very unforgiving landscape of human experience.

The Islander reflects life as it was on the Blaskets - raw, real and extremely challenging.