Islands of Silence: A Novel

by Martin Booth

Islands of Silence is the story of the young Alec Marquand, who in the summer of 1914 has just graduated from college with a degree in archaeology. He has been hired by the lord of a remote country estate in the Scottish Highlands to survey the ancient Stone Age brochs that lie on his property.

Once there Alec comes upon a small island which is called Eilean Tosdach--the Island of Silence. What Alec discovers on that island changes him forever. And just as Alec makes his amazing find, he is shipped off to war . . . a war he does not want to fight, but one in which he ends up as a medic aboard a ship ready to storm the beaches of Gallipoli.

A brilliantly crafted novel in the tradition of All’s Quiet on the Western Front and The Ghost Road, Islands of Silence is a tour through one man's hell in search of a path for redemption.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2003

About the author

Martin Booth was a prolific English novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book I found in a sale many years ago, but became one of my favourite novels - a moving and powerfully written book contrasting the experiences of an ex-soldier numbed by war memories and a semi-wild girl found on a remote Scottish island, and the different silent worlds they inhabit.

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"They seemed not to see me, as if I was not so much a stranger of whom to be suspicious but an invisible ghost. I was, I thought, nothing more than the tingle that ran up their spines and tickled the napes of their necks when the candle flame danced and the shadows did a little unexpected jig."

Eilean Tosdach - the Island of Silence.

I found this novel to be very good for the first two thirds and excellent through to its conclusion. The structure of alternating chapters was built admirably, creating at least two distinct narratives that in the end were not distinct at all.

What is real? What is not? How does this proceed? What just happened? When are we? Where are we?

The nature of Alec's residence and his experience on the beach at Gallipoli are remarkably true to life.

While reading ISLANDS OF SILENCE, I was regularly reminded of JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, PIRINISI, and the opening scenes of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

ISLANDS OF SILENCE - worthy of a second read.

[Jl5841 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Booth's novel focuses on a pacifist's attempt to divorce himself from the mechanized violence of WWI and unite with the purity of hermitage.

[Paul Ingrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary gold.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will not assign any rating to this book because either I failed it or it failed me, I'm not sure which. It seemed to me that Booth was trying to tell five or six stories at once, none of them successfully. I applaud his attempt but for me it just didn't work. I very quickly lost interest in what was happening (or had happened or might have happened) to the protagonist. I finally stopped at Chapter 12 and went back to the beginning to get my bearings, skipping ahead, trying to pick up the threads, continued along for another hundred pages, got lost again and finally gave up altogether.
As I say, the failing may have been mine. Sorry, Mr. Booth but I have other things I want to read.
Fearing that I had treated the book unfairly, I now revisited it, with no better success than the first time around. With apologies to Mr Booth and those readers, perhaps more erudite than myself, I lemmed it.
(For a definition of the useful verb "to lem" I recommend Goodreads colleague Forrest Aguirre's excellent commentary on Ned Beauman's "The Teleportation Accident")

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise and a fantastic book. I had trouble getting started; but I wasn't prepared for the style, after about 60 pages I figure it out and was taken away! One of my favorites and the best read since Shadow of the Wind. After I finished I was thinking of the girl and really thought I may have seen a ghost or her spirit in my room. "She is yours" gives me goose bumps still.

[Lizie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing story, well written. The book opens with the main character in a catatonic state living in an asylum where he quietly observes life around him. Each alternate chapter reveals a bit more of his life story and why he has ended up in this state.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Booth is a gifted story teller, or I guess I should say was. I am always saddened when I discover a new author, only to find out he has died. The "silence" is expressed on several levels...very complex, lots to think about.

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little overwrought but successfully spooky and affecting battle scenes (hardly "battles," though, that implies some kind of agency on the part of both sides). Relentlessly flashes present-past-present-past, alternating by chapter.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting story - weird main character. He was extremely frustrating, but what a life story. A little confusing, war scenes are horrible.

[Rose Neild · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing novel, so beautifully written. lots of emotions. read it if you liked atonement.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoroughly surprised me how much I enjoyed where this book took me.