The tradition of storytelling in Canada finds its deepest roots along the country’s East Coast. And it is here, upon the rugged coastline of Cape Breton, that Beatrice MacNeil sets the stage for her latest novel, Where White Horses Gallop, a stirring account of human frailty and courage.

During the early days of the Second World War, three young friends enlist in the legendary Highlanders brigade: fisherman Hector MacDonald, musician Benny Doucet, and Calum MacPherson, who has plans to study medicine in Halifax. When the trio sails off to the European front in 1941, the small Gaelic community of Beinn Barra is left to await word of their fate.

Like MacNeil’s previous novel, 2003’s Butterflies Dance in the Dark, her new book takes you by the heart and gently pulls you along for the ride. The storyline is lean and layered with nostalgia; the writing is fluid and flows with seemingly effortless humility. Characters reveal themselves slowly, coming into focus like buoys bobbing in the Atlantic fog. Though occasionally MacNeil resorts to a kind of clichéd stoicism – “I never realized the swirl of the pipes could pump freedom into your step as they do, for me and the rest of the boys” – she has nonetheless done a good job of capturing the cautious bravado that hallmarks the people of the region.

Particularly striking are the small slices of life in the highlands of Cape Breton, vivid moments informed by MacNeil’s own intimate and detailed knowledge of the landscape and its people. It is here that the author is at her best, capturing wisps of thought and emotion with the craft of a seasoned artisan.