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An Island

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About this listen

Nominated for the 2021 Booker Prize.

Samuel has lived alone for a long time; one morning he finds the sea has brought someone to offer companionship and to threaten his solitude....

A young refugee washes up unconscious on the beach of a small island inhabited by no one but Samuel, an old lighthouse keeper. Unsettled, Samuel is soon swept up in memories of his former life on the mainland: a life that saw his country suffer under colonisers, then fight for independence, only to fall under the rule of a cruel dictator; and he recalls his own part in its history. In this new man’s presence he begins to consider, as he did in his youth, what is meant by land and to whom it should belong. To what lengths will a person go in order to ensure that what is theirs will not be taken from them?

A novel about guilt and fear, friendship and rejection; about the meaning of home.

©2021 Karen Jennings (P)2021 W. F. Howes Ltd Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political

Critic reviews

“A gripping, terrifying and unforgettable story.” (Elleke Boehmer)

“[A] moving, transfixing novel of loss, political upheaval, history, identity, all rendered in majestic and extraordinary prose.” (Booker Prize judges)

"Karen Jennings...is showing all the signs that she is destined for the kind of greatness achieved by Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer or Jeanette Winterson." (Karina Magdalena, Cape Times)
All stars
Most relevant
What a long winded novel with nothing new to tell us. I listened to it on audible and the narrator’s voice is beautiful and deep but all the accents are strongly Nigerian. It detracts from the fact that the writer had not specified what African island it is. This was minor in the bigger, more boring scheme of things though. There are so many novels that have already told us a lot about the same subject of colonised countries with uprisings, coups, dictators and a morally questionable protagonist. The most original of its kind was A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul. Karen Jennings’ novel is a bad copy by comparison.

Pointless

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A bleak but very compassionate read.
The detail is mesmerising and it is wonderfully narrated

Not a word is wasted

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