Reading List Islands

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP by John Buchan (Hodder & Stoughton, £2.99)

The last of the five novels to feature

Richard Hannay – the first was The 39 Steps – Buchan’s 1936 adventure is set on the fictitious island of the title, though the fact that the author visited the Faroe Islands just before putting pen to paper gives a clue as to the real-life model.

Here Buchan refers to the islands as ‘the Norlands’, and they become the setting for the final showdown between Hannay, his old pal Sandy Arbuthnot and assorted baddies led by one Jacques D’Ingreville. Curious fact: the novel was published in America as The Man From The Norlands because, confusingly, Buchan had used the title The Island Of Sheep in 1919 for a different book entirely, one he co-wrote with his wife and published under the pseudonym Cadmus and Harmonia.

THE SUMMER BOOK by Tove Jansson (Sort Of Books, £9.99)

Although better known as the author of the Moomin books for children, the Finnishborn writer also worked as an illustrator for comics, penned political satire and turned out a series of remarkable novels. The best known is this one, which was published in 1972 and tells in prose which is both crisp and elliptical the story of six-year-old Sophia and the summer she spends with her grandmother on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. Life, death, the nature of God, the different qualities of love, what you can find in a rockpool – it’s all here in this splendid and unashamedly autobiographical novella from one of the unsung greats of 20th century literature.

THE INVENTION OF MOREL by Adolfo Bioy Casares (NYRB Classic, £7.99)

Opinions vary and debate rages but there’s a decent argument to be made for this weird and wonderful 1940 novella being the inspiration for Alain Resnais’ 1961 film Last Year At Marienbad, one of the key works of the French New Wave. Part fantastic journey, part sci-fi story, part feverdream – and if that sounds like everything Jorge Luis Borges ever wrote, know that he and Bioy Casares were firm friends – it tells the story of an un-named narrator who finds himself on a desert island on the run from something or someone. Initially he’s alone until one day, all of a sudden, a party of what appears to be holiday makers turns up and starts playing tennis and holding tea dances. Are they real? Is the island real? Is he real? Is anything real?