Welcome to Litsy!

This is a small but powerful book about an old man who is the caretaker of a lighthouse on an island off the coast of Africa. We learn who he is, what his life has been about, and how he lives now. His life changes when a man washes up on his shore, and he is forced to confront his past. Well worth reading.

Read for the #TOB23. A lighthouse keeper who has lived alone for years saves a man who has washed ashore. Then he begins to second guess his decision. This is a short novel that manages to feel very claustrophobic.

I‘m uncertain about this one. I do like the writing quite a bit but I don‘t know I fully understood it. It seems rather ambiguous in that the reality of the MC is difficult to discern. (To me anyway.) I was left with questions. It might be more clear in print rather than audio, especially since I mainly listen at bedtime and have to backtrack. 🥱

A lighthouse keeper living alone on an island finds a body washed ashore. The body is that of a younger man still alive. Set over four days, the book tackles heavy themes: xenophobia, postcolonial politics, & poverty, yet at no point did I see or expect what was coming next. Up to the last page, I felt unmoored & unsettled, sad & filled with dread. Jennings' language is clean & precise. It's a short, taut book that feels so much larger. #ToB2023

#20in4 wrap up. I didn‘t quite make 20 hours as planned and I didn‘t quite read as planned either. I finished How the Penguins Saved Veronica Thursday. I did finish An Island on audio and then decided to listen to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida instead of diving into The Women Could Fly.

Heartbreakingly sad but exquisitely written. Samuel has been the lighthouse-keeper on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country for decades. His only contact with the mainland is a bi-weekly supply boat. When a strange man washes up on the island one day, Samuel‘s self-enforced solitude is upended, with tragic consequences. Meanwhile, we get Samuel‘s backstory and what brought him to his isolation.
#ToB2023

The author explores many issues in this relatively short novel, including violence, colonialism, trust and redemption. It is a worthy #ToB2023 book but I felt detached from the main character and story throughout the reading.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Hmmmmm. Soft pick. The ending is quite the punch 🥊 to the gut. Stunned, maybe, is what I am feeling. Off to go read a bunch of reviews now as I think how I am reacting, compared to my experience while listening. 😳🤔 #TOB2023

A short, dark read from the #tob2023 shortlist. Not my favorite, but I did appreciate the ominous build to the inevitable ending. I much preferred the action on the island to the past memories. A low pick.

On a side note: Finally recovered my iPad to read on from my sons after they upgraded for Christmas. I had forgotten how nice it is to read ebooks on this. 🙌

I feel like a grump with my reviews this week, but this was only okay for me. I just never felt invested in the story or in Samuel as a character. Not sure exactly why. I went with audio, but I wonder if this one might work better in print. Oh well, another #ToB23 contender done and dusted.

A former accidental political prisoner living alone on an island is catapulted into memory by the arrival of a newcomer. This novel explores patterns of violence, from the highest levels downward, that keep us unable to connect with others or even to recognize friend from foe. The reader feels a main character without a moral center attempting to cobble an ethos and a worldview from experiences he cannot translate. #tob2023

Another #tob23 book read and another I liked but didn‘t love. A man living alone on an island finds someone washed up on the beach and takes him into his home. Having a stranger with him causes him to revisit his past and the events that brought him to the island. A short book that touches on the lasting impact of trauma, refugees, and political upheaval after colonialism. The beginning hooked me but it felt too short to deliver great impact.

It was the first time that an oil drum had washed up on the scattered pebbles of the island shore. Other items had arrived over the years--ragged shirts, bits of rope,, . . . There had been bodies, too, as there was today. The length of it stretched out beside the drum, one hand reaching forward as though to indicate that they had made the journey together and did not now wish to be parted.

#FridayReads #FirstLineFriday

I want to not give this a pick because of the ending but I think I understand it. We meet Samuel, a lighthouse keeper and sole inhabitant of an island off Africa. One day a body washes upon his shore and it turns out to still be living forcing him to think about his past. His village family forced from their home into the city and poverty by colonization to revolution to dictatorship back to revolution. Sometimes the violence and shame of 👇🏼

#12booksof2022 May was my favorite reading month this year. I went through several shorter Booker longlist books from 2021 and actually liked all of them. An Island gets a nod. But here are others I finished that month that were terrific:

Bewilderment by Richard Powers - Booker list
Second Place by Rachel Cusk - Booker list
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector

I feel like a book takes a risk when there are multiple storylines. Here, it‘s a non-linear story, which I often love, but the current and past stories for the character are so disparate from one another they feel very separate. I found the current storyline really compelling and wanted it to be more fleshed out, and I didn‘t connect with the past storyline at all. #tob23

I had a Tyra Bank ANTM “We were all rooting for you!” moment with this one. I wanted to like it and found the premise interesting, but it‘s another low pick on the #tobshortlist.

A man once held prisoner by a dictator struggles to live outside prison walls. Unable to thrive in a community, he operates a light house on an island alone. When a refugee from another country washes up on shore, he must wrestle with his demons.

New holiday booksleeve!

Heads up, American TOB-ers! #TOB2023

This is really good but very dark. And I feel like I read it too quickly.

Samuel is self-exiled on an island tending a lighthouse. One day a stranger washes ashore - and everything changes. Samuel is suspicious and scared, feelings that bring back memories of the time he lived on the mainland. Times when a revolution made an end to colonialism only to lead to a corrupt government, ending in another revolution and a new dictatorship.

Samuel‘s story is that of Africa, betrayed so many times.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇿🇦⬇️

The key sociopolitical points of this novel are not exclusive to South Africa. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#an-island

#WeeklyForecast 21/22

I am reading both The Still Point (nautical novel for #Booked2022) and Blood River (for #ReadingAfrica2022) at the moment and hope to finish them soon. Next will be the tagged one and then I may have time to start one of the books that‘s been eyeing me (Three, Tell me how to Be, The Swimmers, Seven Days in June, Anatomy of a Scandal)… we‘ll see!

I don‘t do well with allegories and this book was so short I didn‘t have time to connect to Samuel, a lighthouse keeper living alone on an isolated island with his memories & demons. Set in an unnamed African country, a body washes ashore surprising Samuel when he discovers the body is still breathing. I wanted to like this book but honestly I was bored. #NetGalley #ARC

Easily my favorite from the 2021 Booker longlist. A lighthouse caretaker on an otherwise empty spare island finds a body washed up, a still living man. As we begin to get a sense of this place, we see the flickers of the caretakers past. The Adjectives dystopian, bleak, ambiguous come mind. It‘s a terrific novel, tightly constructed, creating wonder and discomfort.

This was longlisted (but not shortlisted) for the Booker Prize in 2021 but is just now coming out in the United States later this month. I had early access from Random House in audio.↘️

Working, still, through the 2021 Booker longlist. I‘ve so far only read this over yesterday‘s and today‘s lunch breaks. The first 40 pages are terrific - one lighthouse keeper on a neglected island, and a living body washes up.

9-24 Feb 22
#Booker 10
Samuel is self-exiled on an island tending a lighthouse. Until a body washes ashore - not unusual except this body is still alive. He is wary of the stranger, a refugee. Samuel recalls life in an African country and his role in the failed revolt against a dictator who seized power after independence. A role for which he is jailed.
This is a tense, concise and compelling allegory of post-colonialism and treatment of refugees.

"What colour are they? The bodies. What colour?" He was silent.
"What I am asking is, are they darker than us - their skin - that is what I want to know. Are they darker than you or me?"
"I think so."
"And their faces?...."
"I don't know. ... They look like children."
"Listen, we're busy people. We have real crimes to deal with.... We cannot come out to the island every time another country's refugees flee and drown. It's not our problem."

This is an amazing novel about the tragedy of war and violence. It reinforces that violence is never the answer even in the most desperate of times. Those affected by it may never recover.

An Island is a short but complex novel that explores human behaviour and the way we understand the actions of others, as well as complex ideas about colonialism and post-colonialism. Jennings has mastered the art of slow-burning tension- Through dual narratives, Jennings offers Samuel and the refugee both as a geopolitical allegory, and as a story about how our actions and choices are all built cumulatively from our complex past experiences.

#colonialism

3.5 ? this books packs a strong political punch. Asks what is courage and what is weakness. Talks about past trauma and the violence that seeds in a person from that trauma. Talks about racism and the danger of "the other." A book I will think about for a while.

In the span of four days, we get to know the claustrophobic world of Samuel, who works as a lighthouse keeper in an unnamed African country on an unnamed island, where he finds a corpse every now and then ... until one day he finds a barely alive refugee on the shore and that triggers in Samuel various memories from his past. The basic thread of the story is the legacy of colonialism, where the now ‘free‘ state is falling from one extreme … 👇

The last book for me on the #bookerlonglist and another great read. It‘s only a short book but packs a powerful punch; Samuel has exiled himself onto an island, following revolution and imprisonment in an unnamed (African?) country.

Samuel is used to dead bodies washing up on his shore, but this time someone is alive. We see how this impacts on Samuel‘s state of mind and ultimately on his life on the island. I can see this making the shortlist.

Looking good at the hairdressers! 🤣

Enjoying the tagged book - yet another from the #bookerlonglist that I like…. it‘s been a very unusual year for the Booker Prize in that respect!