10 More books about ...
Islands and the sea
Such was the flood of suggestions of other books about islands, following last week’s list, here are more.
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD
Norman Mailer Mailer’s unforgettable account of a platoon of soldiers, trapped on the fictional South Pacific island of Anopopei, was based on his own experiences in the Phillipines campaign in the Second World War. Mailer took inspiration from Tolstoy, whose Anna Karenina he read every morning before sitting down to write.
CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN
Louis de Berniere Also set during the Second World War, this time on Greek island of Cephallonia, Louis de Berniere’s runaway bestseller is a high-octane love triangle, whose frothing plotline reflects the cauldron of Allies, Italians and Germans that fought over the island.
BEAR ISLAND
Alistair MacLean Using an island in the Norwegian Arctic, MacLean spins a classic locked-room thriller, in which various members of a film crew en route to the island are murdered, the deaths continuing once they reach the island.
REEF
Romesh Gunesekara Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this delicate, gentle novel is the story of a boy sent to work for a scientist working on the Sri Lankan coral reef. A subtle view of the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised, it mirrors the destruction of Gunesekera’s homeland by the corrupt powers that rule it.
SICILIAN CAROUSEL
Lawrence Durrell A lightly fictionalised version of a whistlestop tour Durrell took around Sicily in a little red coach, an island he had wished not to visit after the death of his close friend and correspondent, Martine. Readers can be glad that he overcame his reluctance.
THE ISLAND OF SHEEP
John Buchan In the third of Richard Hannay’s knightly outings, the island where it is partly set is a thinly-veiled Faroes. The story is undisguised tosh, of the rip-roaring sort that makes the Bond movies look like kitchen sink realism.
VINLAND
George Mackay Brown The writer who considered a day out of Orkney a day wasted turned to the 11th century, when Ranald Sigmundsson, the hero of his saga-style novel, wishes to set sail for the remote island of the title, which he had once visited as a young man. This journey is as much spiritual as physical, and articulates some of Mackay Brown’s reflections on death.
THE FANATIC
James Robertson Most of Robertson’s debut novel takes place on dry land, but the scenes on the Bass Rock, off North Berwick, where one of his characters is imprisoned, are indelible, and are a reminder that this world-famous sanctuary of gannets, was once a place of correction.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
P D James When an autocratic, unprincipled novelist is found hanging from the railings of the lighthouse, on a privateCornish island , what first looks like suicide is soon revealed as murder. The isolated, setting is perfect for a traditionally overwrought plot, whose feverish potential is doused by James’s calm style and hero Adam Dalgliesh.