Mr Peacock’s Possessions

★★★★

Lydia Syson, Zaffre, R265

The idea of living on a small, fertile island has engaged the public imagination for centuries, but in this literary novel Syson tweaks the tropical island trope to present us with a somewhat bleaker take of the real dangers a community might face when isolated from society. In 1879 the Peacocks were entrepreneurial gypsies, moving from one Antipodean location to another with an ever-growing family, driven by the ambition and the discontent of the family patriarch, Joseph. The Peacocks and their young children settle on one island but discover they cannot work the island alone, and send for workers who are shocked to discover the Peacock offspring lack even the basics of literacy. Narrated from the points of view of Lizzie, Joseph’s favourite child, and Kalala, the worker who teaches the Peacock children to read and write, it examines how the threat to a family and community often comes not from foreign elements, but the worm within the bud.