The Islands (Emily Brugman, A&U)

It’s the 1950s and the Finnish migrants who have made their home on the ruthless terrain of Little Rat Island are accustomed to surviving harsh landscapes, both emotional and physical. But in The Islands debut novelist Emily Brugman juxtaposes this toughness with a softness, and a search for love and meaning, in the hearts of her characters. Onni moves to Little Rat, one of the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia, when his brother is lost at sea. He is a cautious but ambitious man whose wife, Alva, harbours a hope for their relationship that surprises her: ‘because where she came from, happiness was not necessarily something one was entitled to or expected to find’. They search for the elusive ‘good life’, although this comes to mean something different to each of them. Alva, Onni and their daughter, Hilda, each search for meaning and a place to belong amid the transience of their lives, which are intertwined, both literally and metaphorically, with the ebbs and flows of the natural world, which are rendered beautifully by the author. Brugman writes with great compassion, and there is a stillness in the moments of bearing witness to the lives of her characters that recalls writers like Hannah Kent or Mirandi Riwoe. The Islands is an accomplished debut with a big heart.  

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne writer and academic, and the schools programmer at the Wheeler Centre. 

Category: Reviews