A moving and original debut novel. Observant, warm and
extraordinary.
In the mid-1950s, a small group of Finnish migrants set up camp on
Little Rat, a tiny island in an archipelago off the coast of Western
Australia. The crayfishing industry is in its infancy, and the islands,
haunted though they are by past shipwrecks, possess an indefinable
allure.
Drawn here by tragedy, Onni Saari is soon hooked by the stark beauty of
the landscape and the slivers of jutting coral onto which the
crayfishers build their precarious huts. Could these reefs, teeming with
the elusive and lucrative cray, hold the key to a good life?
The Islands is the sweeping story of the Saari family: Onni, an
industrious and ambitious young man, grappling with the loss of a loved
one; his wife Alva, quiet but stoic, seeking a sense of belonging
between the ramshackle camps of the islands and the dusty suburban lots
of the mainland; and their pensive daughter Hilda, who dreams of
becoming the skipper of her own boat. As the Saari's try to build their
future in Australia, their lives entwine with those of the fishing
families of Little Rat, in myriad and unexpected ways.
A stunning, insightful story of a search for home.
'There is an other-worldly quality about the Abrolhos which is beyond
the reach of ordinary storytelling. Emily Brugman has captured them,
staked them to the page in all their isolation and aridity and scoured
indifference, because her storytelling is extraordinary.' Jock Serong,
author, Preservation
'Beautiful, fresh, wise and true - startlingly good.' - Robert Drewe,
author, Ned Kelly
'A beautiful, breathtaking, salty book about finding home on the far
reaches of the continental shelf.' Marele Day, author*, Lambs of God*
