An Island

'The far southern extremities of our planet produce remarkable, distilled, and ravaged tales. An Island has to be counted as among the most remarkable of these. Karen Jennings offers a chilling, immersive portrait of Samuel, a lighthouse keeper on a remote island off the African continent. He is a man at the edge of history, until the arrival of a refugee stranger returns him to everything he most needs to forget. A gripping, terrifying and unforgettable story.' * Elleke Boehmer * 'An Island concerns itself with lives lived on the margins, through the story of a man who has exiled himself from the known world... a moving, transfixing novel of loss, political upheaval, history, identity, all rendered in majestic and extraordinary prose.' * Booker Prize Judges * 'Thoroughly absorbing... a small but powerful book, with the reach of a more capacious work, compounding merciless political critique and allegory rendered in tender prose.' * Guardian * 'A disturbing masterpiece.' * Good Reading * 'A disturbing masterpiece exposing xenophobia and the plight of modern refugees. Through Samuel's story [Jennings] exposes human frailties and what drives the need to defend oneself, land and possessions.' * Good Reading * 'Everything coheres because of Jennings's immaculate understanding of craft. Each polished narrative piece perfectly complements the next. This is a novel of contrasts: understated and bold, spare and sweeping, slender and grand.' * Vulture *