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Wolfe Island
For years Kitty Hawke has lived alone on Wolfe Island, witness to the island’s erosion and clinging to the ghosts of her past. Her work as a sculptor and her wolfdog Girl are enough. News of mainland turmoil is as distant as myth until refugees from that world arrive: her granddaughter Cat, and Luis and Alejandra, a brother and sister escaping persecution. When threats from the mainland draw closer, they are forced to flee for their lives. They travel north through winter, a journey during which Kitty must decide what she will do to protect the people she loves.
Part western, part lament for a disappearing world, Wolfe Island (set off the northeast coast of the US) is a transporting novel that explores connection and isolation and the ways lives and families shatter and are remade.
Part western, part lament for a disappearing world, Wolfe Island (set off the northeast coast of the US) is a transporting novel that explores connection and isolation and the ways lives and families shatter and are remade.
384 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2019
99 people are currently reading
1372 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Treloar
5 books158 followersLucy Treloar was born in Malaysia and educated in Melbourne, England and Sweden. A graduate of the University of Melbourne and RMIT, Lucy is a writer and editor and has plied her trades both in Australia and in Cambodia, where she lived for a number of years.
Her short fiction has appeared in Sleepers, Overland, Seizure, and Best Australian Stories 2013 and her non fiction in The Age, Meanjin, Womankind and elsewhere. She won
the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific), the WAUM award, and has also been awarded an Asialink Fellowship to Cambodia and a Varuna Publishers' Fellowship.
Lucy’s debut novel, Salt Creek,was published by Picador (Pan Macmillan) in August 2015 and the UK, USA, CAN and Europe in 2017. It won the Matt Richell ABIA award for best new writer, the Dobbie Award for best debut, the Indie Award for best debut, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and the Readings Prize for best new writer.
Wolfe Island (Sept 2019) is her second novel.
Her short fiction has appeared in Sleepers, Overland, Seizure, and Best Australian Stories 2013 and her non fiction in The Age, Meanjin, Womankind and elsewhere. She won
the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific), the WAUM award, and has also been awarded an Asialink Fellowship to Cambodia and a Varuna Publishers' Fellowship.
Lucy’s debut novel, Salt Creek,was published by Picador (Pan Macmillan) in August 2015 and the UK, USA, CAN and Europe in 2017. It won the Matt Richell ABIA award for best new writer, the Dobbie Award for best debut, the Indie Award for best debut, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and the Readings Prize for best new writer.
Wolfe Island (Sept 2019) is her second novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
May 4, 2020
Shortlisted for the 2020 ABIA Literary Prize.
With Wolfe Island Lucy Treloar addresses two problems which we, as global citizens face, and have the potential to develop into more dire problems in the future, especially if you live in certain geographical areas. The problems are rising sea levels caused by global warming and the plight of refugees and how they are treated.
Treloar clouds her work in ambiguity. The reader doesn’t know how far into the future this novel takes place, we hear of a war, but between who, even the location of Wolfe Island is a mystery, somewhere off the northeast coast of America. So, what do we know?
Kitty Hawke lives a hermit’s existence on Wolfe Island. The rising sea levels are slowly, indelibly, swallowing the island. The other residents left long ago, their houses empty shells, inevitably breaking down. She owns a domesticated wolfdog named Girl. A companion more loyal than any human being she has known. Kitty has chosen this solitary life, shunning life on the mainland, only making rare trips to it for supplies. She dislikes the mainland and what it has become.
Kitty is an artist, a sculptor whose creations are built from the detritus, rubbish, and objects she finds all over the island, washed up on the shore.
Kitty’s solitary life is shattered forever when her granddaughter arrives by boat with some others. Treloar keeps her cards close to her chest and again the reader is left stumbling in the dark. It is obvious they are running from something, but what? When hunters start to arrive on their trail. Kitty, granddaughter, Girl and the others are forced to flee the island.
The novel is broken into three parts, and I must say that the narrative and writing improve as the story unfolds and progresses. If the whole novel was of the same standard as the brilliant last part, the last twenty percent of the book, this would have been closer to a five star read for me.
The gradual submerging of Wolfe Island is used as a metaphor for the approaching danger to islands, coastal cities, and even countries imposed by global warming.
The refugee issue is told in snippets, stories, and rumours as to what is happening to refugees trying to “sneak” into the mainland from the south. And from the attitudes of the people they come across while fleeing their pursuers. While fleeing their pursuers, there is a pervading feeling of lawlessness similar to Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”.
If you are starting this book and it’s not “clicking” bear with it, because it does improve with each page. And as I said before, part three, “Home”, is beautifully written and is worth the reading. The reader is finally rewarded, the light is turned on, and some of the mystery revealed.
A well written, enjoyable read, especially if subtle dystopian novels with their fingers on the pulse of the times are your thing. 4 Stars!
With Wolfe Island Lucy Treloar addresses two problems which we, as global citizens face, and have the potential to develop into more dire problems in the future, especially if you live in certain geographical areas. The problems are rising sea levels caused by global warming and the plight of refugees and how they are treated.
Treloar clouds her work in ambiguity. The reader doesn’t know how far into the future this novel takes place, we hear of a war, but between who, even the location of Wolfe Island is a mystery, somewhere off the northeast coast of America. So, what do we know?
Kitty Hawke lives a hermit’s existence on Wolfe Island. The rising sea levels are slowly, indelibly, swallowing the island. The other residents left long ago, their houses empty shells, inevitably breaking down. She owns a domesticated wolfdog named Girl. A companion more loyal than any human being she has known. Kitty has chosen this solitary life, shunning life on the mainland, only making rare trips to it for supplies. She dislikes the mainland and what it has become.
Kitty is an artist, a sculptor whose creations are built from the detritus, rubbish, and objects she finds all over the island, washed up on the shore.
Kitty’s solitary life is shattered forever when her granddaughter arrives by boat with some others. Treloar keeps her cards close to her chest and again the reader is left stumbling in the dark. It is obvious they are running from something, but what? When hunters start to arrive on their trail. Kitty, granddaughter, Girl and the others are forced to flee the island.
The novel is broken into three parts, and I must say that the narrative and writing improve as the story unfolds and progresses. If the whole novel was of the same standard as the brilliant last part, the last twenty percent of the book, this would have been closer to a five star read for me.
The gradual submerging of Wolfe Island is used as a metaphor for the approaching danger to islands, coastal cities, and even countries imposed by global warming.
The refugee issue is told in snippets, stories, and rumours as to what is happening to refugees trying to “sneak” into the mainland from the south. And from the attitudes of the people they come across while fleeing their pursuers. While fleeing their pursuers, there is a pervading feeling of lawlessness similar to Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”.
If you are starting this book and it’s not “clicking” bear with it, because it does improve with each page. And as I said before, part three, “Home”, is beautifully written and is worth the reading. The reader is finally rewarded, the light is turned on, and some of the mystery revealed.
A well written, enjoyable read, especially if subtle dystopian novels with their fingers on the pulse of the times are your thing. 4 Stars!
March 28, 2020
Wolfe Island is a beautifully written novel about love and the ties which bind us to others. It is set in a possible future where climate change is having a huge effect on peoples' lives and society has changed very much for the worse.
The narrator is Kitty, a solitary woman and an artist, who lives alone on Wolfe Island with just her much loved dog to keep her company. One day out of the blue her estranged granddaughter and three young friends turn up on the island needing help. In the journey that follows Kitty loses some things that are very important to her but she also gains so much.
The book is labelled as dystopian but that aspect of it is low key. There are references to what is occurring but it is the background to the story rather than the main event. Mostly the reader is treated to beautifully descriptive writing and a developing understanding of all the many characters, good and bad.
The narrator is Kitty, a solitary woman and an artist, who lives alone on Wolfe Island with just her much loved dog to keep her company. One day out of the blue her estranged granddaughter and three young friends turn up on the island needing help. In the journey that follows Kitty loses some things that are very important to her but she also gains so much.
The book is labelled as dystopian but that aspect of it is low key. There are references to what is occurring but it is the background to the story rather than the main event. Mostly the reader is treated to beautifully descriptive writing and a developing understanding of all the many characters, good and bad.
September 9, 2019
Isolated on Wolfe Island, the only remaining resident, sculptor Kitty Hawke relished her life. She’d had a husband, Hart, daughter Claudie and son Tobe, but they were now on main; Kitty had her wolfdog Girl as she searched for items to use in her sculpting; watched the land being eaten by the sea; sifted through her memories. But one day as a storm arose, a small boat came ashore and aboard was Kitty’s sixteen-year-old granddaughter Cat, plus Josh and siblings, Luis and seven-year-old Alejandra. Kitty’s life changed from that moment on.
Cat was aloof, rude even to her grandmother, but over the weeks and months Kitty gradually came to know and care for these four youngsters. But when trouble arrived, their escape from danger was necessary. Would Kitty’s strength and dogged determination be enough to keep her loved ones safe in the perilous winter journey to the north?
Wolfe Island is the second novel by Aussie author Lucy Treloar and is quite different from Salt Creek which was set in a historical setting in Australia. (Fictional) Wolfe Island is set in Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the US, slightly into the future, with an outstanding main character in Kitty. The writing is lyrical, the descriptions vivid. A thoroughly enjoyable read which I recommend.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
Cat was aloof, rude even to her grandmother, but over the weeks and months Kitty gradually came to know and care for these four youngsters. But when trouble arrived, their escape from danger was necessary. Would Kitty’s strength and dogged determination be enough to keep her loved ones safe in the perilous winter journey to the north?
Wolfe Island is the second novel by Aussie author Lucy Treloar and is quite different from Salt Creek which was set in a historical setting in Australia. (Fictional) Wolfe Island is set in Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the US, slightly into the future, with an outstanding main character in Kitty. The writing is lyrical, the descriptions vivid. A thoroughly enjoyable read which I recommend.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
July 8, 2019
“It was exhausting being around people and noticing them, thinking about them. I felt roughened and coarse now, as if I was rubbing against the grain of Wolfe Island. It used to be that I could forget myself and be, spend hours in the marshes watching the tides and the grasses, birds walking over my feet. I’d been still so long, listening to the unintelligible wind, I was part of it then, and insignificant. I missed that. The writing helped a little.”
Wolfe Island is the second novel by award-winning Australian author, Lucy Treloar. Now the sole inhabitant of Wolfe Island, celebrated sculptor Kitty Hawke doesn’t see herself as a recluse, but she does have the islanders’ distrust of the main. Of the many possible reactions she might have had when she sees a tiny boat bringing four people to the shore, just ahead of a winter storm, the one she chooses is going to change her life.
Of course, when she realises one is her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Catalina Hawke, helping them is a given, regardless of a kernel of resentment about obligation. Despite her stubborn isolation, Kitty is not so naive of world affairs that she doesn't recognise teenaged Luis and his seven-year-old sister Alejandra as runners needing refuge. Why Cat and handsome eighteen-year-old Josh need to lie low is not clear. All are less than forthcoming with information.
They settle into a vacant house and Kitty finds herself eventually getting used to having them around, Alejandra’s company in her “makings” room being particularly agreeable. Despite Cat’s fieriness, they seem to rub along well enough until events overtake them, by which time: “I knew in those moments two things: the purest contentment, and that I would kill anyone who hurt these people.” When Kitty suggests they need to leave Wolfe Island, no one is more surprised than she herself.
Over the months on Wolfe Island and later on the road, the presence of this erstwhile family has Kitty reflecting on the difficult relationship she has had with her son, Tobe, Cat’s mother, Claudie, and her ex-husband, Hart, largely a product of an artistic woman’s strong sense of connection to her place. This is told in Kitty’s notebook, where she also records lists: things found, useful, wished for or essential, visitors, observations, dragonflies… Her later encounters with vigilantes, fugitive illegals and those who help them prompt Kitty’s own wonderfully practical assistance endeavours.
Treloar has the reader intrigued from the first chapter, with hints at murder, and a confrontation involving a gun, a baby and a crazed man. As the story progresses, tension builds up with the slow revelation of facts, and suspicions confirmed. At a certain point, the reader may be sitting back, sighing, thinking the worst is over, when Treloar throws in another gut-punch; the malice of some characters will leave the reader gasping.
Against a background of an island home being insidiously eaten up by the sea and a mainland population reaching hysterical extremes concerning refugees and illegal immigrants, Treloar’s story also touches on sexual harassment and teen pregnancy. She gives the reader some blackly funny moments, the odd lump-in-the-throat, several surprises and many insightful observations about life.
All this is contained within a gorgeous cover and wrapped in some wonderfully evocative descriptive prose: “The whole island was like dominoes lined up. I was always eyeing which part might be the next to fall” and “I never felt as lonely as when I saw them all together and knew myself apart” are examples.
Also: “The water in the inlet had frozen overnight and was as motionless as a photograph for a while ... The water seemed to have gathered itself mid-breath and stopped - held its movement and energy within, its peaks and troughs, slight as they were, intact - until with an imperceptible loosening around mid-morning it slumped, the icy rime at land's edge fell back, the water levelled and the current from the bend of a hummock began to merge into the still bay” are but a few examples.
Treloar’s prose truly showcases the beauty of these islands with their marshes and moods, their close communities and their wildlife, and all that will be lost when these islands drown. Treloar’s second novel might just be even better than her first. What will this talented author do next? This is a literary treat.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Pan Macmillan
Wolfe Island is the second novel by award-winning Australian author, Lucy Treloar. Now the sole inhabitant of Wolfe Island, celebrated sculptor Kitty Hawke doesn’t see herself as a recluse, but she does have the islanders’ distrust of the main. Of the many possible reactions she might have had when she sees a tiny boat bringing four people to the shore, just ahead of a winter storm, the one she chooses is going to change her life.
Of course, when she realises one is her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Catalina Hawke, helping them is a given, regardless of a kernel of resentment about obligation. Despite her stubborn isolation, Kitty is not so naive of world affairs that she doesn't recognise teenaged Luis and his seven-year-old sister Alejandra as runners needing refuge. Why Cat and handsome eighteen-year-old Josh need to lie low is not clear. All are less than forthcoming with information.
They settle into a vacant house and Kitty finds herself eventually getting used to having them around, Alejandra’s company in her “makings” room being particularly agreeable. Despite Cat’s fieriness, they seem to rub along well enough until events overtake them, by which time: “I knew in those moments two things: the purest contentment, and that I would kill anyone who hurt these people.” When Kitty suggests they need to leave Wolfe Island, no one is more surprised than she herself.
Over the months on Wolfe Island and later on the road, the presence of this erstwhile family has Kitty reflecting on the difficult relationship she has had with her son, Tobe, Cat’s mother, Claudie, and her ex-husband, Hart, largely a product of an artistic woman’s strong sense of connection to her place. This is told in Kitty’s notebook, where she also records lists: things found, useful, wished for or essential, visitors, observations, dragonflies… Her later encounters with vigilantes, fugitive illegals and those who help them prompt Kitty’s own wonderfully practical assistance endeavours.
Treloar has the reader intrigued from the first chapter, with hints at murder, and a confrontation involving a gun, a baby and a crazed man. As the story progresses, tension builds up with the slow revelation of facts, and suspicions confirmed. At a certain point, the reader may be sitting back, sighing, thinking the worst is over, when Treloar throws in another gut-punch; the malice of some characters will leave the reader gasping.
Against a background of an island home being insidiously eaten up by the sea and a mainland population reaching hysterical extremes concerning refugees and illegal immigrants, Treloar’s story also touches on sexual harassment and teen pregnancy. She gives the reader some blackly funny moments, the odd lump-in-the-throat, several surprises and many insightful observations about life.
All this is contained within a gorgeous cover and wrapped in some wonderfully evocative descriptive prose: “The whole island was like dominoes lined up. I was always eyeing which part might be the next to fall” and “I never felt as lonely as when I saw them all together and knew myself apart” are examples.
Also: “The water in the inlet had frozen overnight and was as motionless as a photograph for a while ... The water seemed to have gathered itself mid-breath and stopped - held its movement and energy within, its peaks and troughs, slight as they were, intact - until with an imperceptible loosening around mid-morning it slumped, the icy rime at land's edge fell back, the water levelled and the current from the bend of a hummock began to merge into the still bay” are but a few examples.
Treloar’s prose truly showcases the beauty of these islands with their marshes and moods, their close communities and their wildlife, and all that will be lost when these islands drown. Treloar’s second novel might just be even better than her first. What will this talented author do next? This is a literary treat.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Pan Macmillan
October 19, 2019
This is a superb novel, set in a horrifyingly plausible near-future in which rising sea levels have started to inundate small island communities while bringing out the best and worst in wider society. Treloar focuses in on a handful of key characters - primarily complicated, prickly Kitty Hawke. Kitty's life on Wolfe Island changes forever when her estranged grandaughter arrives with a handful of other people fleeing from various challenges on the mainland. The book creates a grim future - a society dealing with the impacts of climate change by withdrawing into conservatism, authoritarianism and small-mindedness. But Treloar also illustrates the best of humanity - love, courage and selflessness. It's a beautiful, sad, anxiety-inducing book that should win a whole bunch of prizes.
January 31, 2020
I feel like I am never satisfied and highly critical of everything these days, but I can only rate things for how I enjoyed them and this was just an 'ok' from me.
I loved:
- the premise - the reclusive artist living on an island that is slowly sinking, then her solitude is interrupted - a dark and stormy mystery!
- the descriptions of the island and its history, the landscape, the abandoned houses and the atmosphere
I didn't like:
- the never telling the whole story so you felt like you were always just on the verge of finding out exactly what was going on, but not quite. I guess that played into the "mystery" but it was WHOLLY unsatisfying
- and while I'm at it, what the hell WAS going on? They were running away but from what? Were they illegal immigrants? or did they have some dangerous knowledge? or both? So frustrating.
- was this set in a dystopian future? or was it present day? I found that confusing. It didn't resemble any present day that I recognise so I guess it was dystopian image of the future TrumpUSA, but honestly I'm sick of this - every bloody author thinks they are being clever and imagining a future that we "just may have if we're not careful". Margaret Atwood has already done that for us all. The Handmaids Tale. The end.
- And what WAS the story meant to be about?? I thought it was about getting the children to safety, but when that was all said and done (or not) half the book was spent seeing Kitty back to crap-town and that was weird. And boring. And irrelevant. in my opinion.
- Why did an Australian author set her book in a remote part of the US??? I don't get it????
- The novel constantly made reference to the weird way Kitty spoke - the island patois - but you get absolutely no sense of it in the writing. I felt the author could have made more of an effort to write the way it was meant to be spoken/heard
Look, I've gone pretty hard on this book and it's due to a lot of things, but mostly I am tired of these stories that try and predict a future that may never happen and that only paint a bleak future. I want sunshine and rainbows and hope, thanks
ps I may change my profile name to Grumpy Bitch ;)
I loved:
- the premise - the reclusive artist living on an island that is slowly sinking, then her solitude is interrupted - a dark and stormy mystery!
- the descriptions of the island and its history, the landscape, the abandoned houses and the atmosphere
I didn't like:
- the never telling the whole story so you felt like you were always just on the verge of finding out exactly what was going on, but not quite. I guess that played into the "mystery" but it was WHOLLY unsatisfying
- and while I'm at it, what the hell WAS going on? They were running away but from what? Were they illegal immigrants? or did they have some dangerous knowledge? or both? So frustrating.
- was this set in a dystopian future? or was it present day? I found that confusing. It didn't resemble any present day that I recognise so I guess it was dystopian image of the future TrumpUSA, but honestly I'm sick of this - every bloody author thinks they are being clever and imagining a future that we "just may have if we're not careful". Margaret Atwood has already done that for us all. The Handmaids Tale. The end.
- And what WAS the story meant to be about?? I thought it was about getting the children to safety, but when that was all said and done (or not) half the book was spent seeing Kitty back to crap-town and that was weird. And boring. And irrelevant. in my opinion.
- Why did an Australian author set her book in a remote part of the US??? I don't get it????
- The novel constantly made reference to the weird way Kitty spoke - the island patois - but you get absolutely no sense of it in the writing. I felt the author could have made more of an effort to write the way it was meant to be spoken/heard
Look, I've gone pretty hard on this book and it's due to a lot of things, but mostly I am tired of these stories that try and predict a future that may never happen and that only paint a bleak future. I want sunshine and rainbows and hope, thanks
ps I may change my profile name to Grumpy Bitch ;)
July 11, 2019
Astounding in its ability to both touch and unsettle, Wolfe Island is a rain dance beneath the clouds of the Apocalypse.
July 8, 2020
The audio version is brilliantly read by Abbe Holmes.
“It was exhausting being around people and noticing them, thinking about them. I felt roughened and coarse now, as if I was rubbing against the grain of Wolfe Island. It used to be that I could forget myself and be, spend hours in the marshes watching the tides and the grasses, birds walking over my feet. I’d been still so long, listening to the unintelligible wind, I was part of it then, and insignificant. I missed that. The writing helped a little.”
Wolfe Island is the second novel by award-winning Australian author, Lucy Treloar. Now the sole inhabitant of Wolfe Island, celebrated sculptor Kitty Hawke doesn’t see herself as a recluse, but she does have the islanders’ distrust of the main. Of the many possible reactions she might have had when she sees a tiny boat bringing four people to the shore, just ahead of a winter storm, the one she chooses is going to change her life.
Of course, when she realises one is her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Catalina Hawke, helping them is a given, regardless of a kernel of resentment about obligation. Despite her stubborn isolation, Kitty is not so naive of world affairs that she doesn't recognise teenaged Luis and his seven-year-old sister Alejandra as runners needing refuge. Why Cat and handsome eighteen-year-old Josh need to lie low is not clear. All are less than forthcoming with information.
They settle into a vacant house and Kitty finds herself eventually getting used to having them around, Alejandra’s company in her “makings” room being particularly agreeable. Despite Cat’s fieriness, they seem to rub along well enough until events overtake them, by which time: “I knew in those moments two things: the purest contentment, and that I would kill anyone who hurt these people.” When Kitty suggests they need to leave Wolfe Island, no one is more surprised than she herself.
Over the months on Wolfe Island and later on the road, the presence of this erstwhile family has Kitty reflecting on the difficult relationship she has had with her son, Tobe, Cat’s mother, Claudie, and her ex-husband, Hart, largely a product of an artistic woman’s strong sense of connection to her place. This is told in Kitty’s notebook, where she also records lists: things found, useful, wished for or essential, visitors, observations, dragonflies… Her later encounters with vigilantes, fugitive illegals and those who help them prompt Kitty’s own wonderfully practical assistance endeavours.
Treloar has the reader intrigued from the first chapter, with hints at murder, and a confrontation involving a gun, a baby and a crazed man. As the story progresses, tension builds up with the slow revelation of facts, and suspicions confirmed. At a certain point, the reader may be sitting back, sighing, thinking the worst is over, when Treloar throws in another gut-punch; the malice of some characters will leave the reader gasping.
Against a background of an island home being insidiously eaten up by the sea and a mainland population reaching hysterical extremes concerning refugees and illegal immigrants, Treloar’s story also touches on sexual harassment and teen pregnancy. She gives the reader some blackly funny moments, the odd lump-in-the-throat, several surprises and many insightful observations about life.
All this is contained within a gorgeous cover and wrapped in some wonderfully evocative descriptive prose: “The whole island was like dominoes lined up. I was always eyeing which part might be the next to fall” and “I never felt as lonely as when I saw them all together and knew myself apart” are examples.
Also: “The water in the inlet had frozen overnight and was as motionless as a photograph for a while ... The water seemed to have gathered itself mid-breath and stopped - held its movement and energy within, its peaks and troughs, slight as they were, intact - until with an imperceptible loosening around mid-morning it slumped, the icy rime at land's edge fell back, the water levelled and the current from the bend of a hummock began to merge into the still bay” are but a few examples.
Treloar’s prose truly showcases the beauty of these islands with their marshes and moods, their close communities and their wildlife, and all that will be lost when these islands drown. Treloar’s second novel might just be even better than her first. What will this talented author do next? This is a literary treat.
“It was exhausting being around people and noticing them, thinking about them. I felt roughened and coarse now, as if I was rubbing against the grain of Wolfe Island. It used to be that I could forget myself and be, spend hours in the marshes watching the tides and the grasses, birds walking over my feet. I’d been still so long, listening to the unintelligible wind, I was part of it then, and insignificant. I missed that. The writing helped a little.”
Wolfe Island is the second novel by award-winning Australian author, Lucy Treloar. Now the sole inhabitant of Wolfe Island, celebrated sculptor Kitty Hawke doesn’t see herself as a recluse, but she does have the islanders’ distrust of the main. Of the many possible reactions she might have had when she sees a tiny boat bringing four people to the shore, just ahead of a winter storm, the one she chooses is going to change her life.
Of course, when she realises one is her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Catalina Hawke, helping them is a given, regardless of a kernel of resentment about obligation. Despite her stubborn isolation, Kitty is not so naive of world affairs that she doesn't recognise teenaged Luis and his seven-year-old sister Alejandra as runners needing refuge. Why Cat and handsome eighteen-year-old Josh need to lie low is not clear. All are less than forthcoming with information.
They settle into a vacant house and Kitty finds herself eventually getting used to having them around, Alejandra’s company in her “makings” room being particularly agreeable. Despite Cat’s fieriness, they seem to rub along well enough until events overtake them, by which time: “I knew in those moments two things: the purest contentment, and that I would kill anyone who hurt these people.” When Kitty suggests they need to leave Wolfe Island, no one is more surprised than she herself.
Over the months on Wolfe Island and later on the road, the presence of this erstwhile family has Kitty reflecting on the difficult relationship she has had with her son, Tobe, Cat’s mother, Claudie, and her ex-husband, Hart, largely a product of an artistic woman’s strong sense of connection to her place. This is told in Kitty’s notebook, where she also records lists: things found, useful, wished for or essential, visitors, observations, dragonflies… Her later encounters with vigilantes, fugitive illegals and those who help them prompt Kitty’s own wonderfully practical assistance endeavours.
Treloar has the reader intrigued from the first chapter, with hints at murder, and a confrontation involving a gun, a baby and a crazed man. As the story progresses, tension builds up with the slow revelation of facts, and suspicions confirmed. At a certain point, the reader may be sitting back, sighing, thinking the worst is over, when Treloar throws in another gut-punch; the malice of some characters will leave the reader gasping.
Against a background of an island home being insidiously eaten up by the sea and a mainland population reaching hysterical extremes concerning refugees and illegal immigrants, Treloar’s story also touches on sexual harassment and teen pregnancy. She gives the reader some blackly funny moments, the odd lump-in-the-throat, several surprises and many insightful observations about life.
All this is contained within a gorgeous cover and wrapped in some wonderfully evocative descriptive prose: “The whole island was like dominoes lined up. I was always eyeing which part might be the next to fall” and “I never felt as lonely as when I saw them all together and knew myself apart” are examples.
Also: “The water in the inlet had frozen overnight and was as motionless as a photograph for a while ... The water seemed to have gathered itself mid-breath and stopped - held its movement and energy within, its peaks and troughs, slight as they were, intact - until with an imperceptible loosening around mid-morning it slumped, the icy rime at land's edge fell back, the water levelled and the current from the bend of a hummock began to merge into the still bay” are but a few examples.
Treloar’s prose truly showcases the beauty of these islands with their marshes and moods, their close communities and their wildlife, and all that will be lost when these islands drown. Treloar’s second novel might just be even better than her first. What will this talented author do next? This is a literary treat.
September 3, 2019
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
Lucy Treloar, the award winning author of Salt Creek, returns to the literary scene with her second impressionistic novel titled Wolfe Island. Set away from Australia on the fictional surrounds of the US marshlands of Chesapeake Bay, Wolfe Island is a dramatic, atmospheric and observant study of humanity in the face of climate disaster. Wolfe Island will haul you in from chapter one, until the endnote.
Kitty Hawke is the central and lone protagonist in Lucy Treloar’s second novel. Kitty is the last inhabitant on an island located in the Chesapeake Bay region in the United States. Kitty knows that one day, due to the rising seas, her island retreat will be swallowed by the ocean. One day Kitty’s secluded existence changes when a family member arrives on the shores of her island, requesting safety. While Kitty struggles to accept that her solo existence may have come to an end, she cannot turn her own granddaughter away in her time of need. When a dangerous threat comes to attack Kitty’s granddaughter, Kitty must make the ultimate sacrifice. What follows is a perilous journey as Kitty and her offspring must find safety
Wolfe Island is quite the departure from Salt Creek, the first novel penned by Lucy Treloar, which I read back in 2017. Where Salt Creek was set on our shores and in the past, Wolfe Island is set in the near future and in the US. However, these two books have the ocean in common, which is a themed carried over from one book to the other.
Revisiting the writing of Lucy Treloar reminded of what a command of prose she possesses. Treloar’s words are lyrical, drifting and incredibly vivid. The imagery is dense and Treloar manages the squeeze in as much detail as she can about the surrounding environment, nature, flora and fauna within the observant pages of this novel. It really is a gift for the literary minded reader.
The sense of place, ultimate destruction, doom and foreboding that is expressed within the pages of Wolfe Island is ever strong. Treloar is a delicate storyteller, weaving an intricate story, complete with unexpected deviations, turns, moments of revelation and suspense. The structure taken by Lucy Treloar to Wolfe Island increases the engagement of the reader in this novel. The book is divided into three set parts and there are time shifts, which are often marked by seasonal changes. Accompanying the main narrative crux are observations made by Kitty, lists of visitors to the island, inventories of trash items collected on the island, lists of dragonflies, emergency survival pack items, wish-lists and show pieces. These additional aspects all culminate to provide another layer to this complex story. There were times where I had to really concentrate to situate myself in the locale and happenings in Wolfe Island, but once I settled into the flow of this novel I did enjoy it.
There are a range implicit themes that Lucy Treloar draws our attention to in her second novel. These include, human bonds, family ties, love, relationships, obligations, protection, trust, isolation, survival, dislocation, sanctuary and inequality. The broader concept of climate change, stemming from the changing nature of the ocean, serves as a forewarning of what is to come if we continue to abuse, rather than respect our environment. With the aid of a strong and mature female protagonist, with her loyal canine companion, Wolfe Island is an unusual and compelling cautionary tale from Lucy Treloar.
*Thanks extended to Pan Macmillan for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Wolfe Island is book #113 of the 2019 Australian Women Writers Challenge
Lucy Treloar, the award winning author of Salt Creek, returns to the literary scene with her second impressionistic novel titled Wolfe Island. Set away from Australia on the fictional surrounds of the US marshlands of Chesapeake Bay, Wolfe Island is a dramatic, atmospheric and observant study of humanity in the face of climate disaster. Wolfe Island will haul you in from chapter one, until the endnote.
Kitty Hawke is the central and lone protagonist in Lucy Treloar’s second novel. Kitty is the last inhabitant on an island located in the Chesapeake Bay region in the United States. Kitty knows that one day, due to the rising seas, her island retreat will be swallowed by the ocean. One day Kitty’s secluded existence changes when a family member arrives on the shores of her island, requesting safety. While Kitty struggles to accept that her solo existence may have come to an end, she cannot turn her own granddaughter away in her time of need. When a dangerous threat comes to attack Kitty’s granddaughter, Kitty must make the ultimate sacrifice. What follows is a perilous journey as Kitty and her offspring must find safety
Wolfe Island is quite the departure from Salt Creek, the first novel penned by Lucy Treloar, which I read back in 2017. Where Salt Creek was set on our shores and in the past, Wolfe Island is set in the near future and in the US. However, these two books have the ocean in common, which is a themed carried over from one book to the other.
Revisiting the writing of Lucy Treloar reminded of what a command of prose she possesses. Treloar’s words are lyrical, drifting and incredibly vivid. The imagery is dense and Treloar manages the squeeze in as much detail as she can about the surrounding environment, nature, flora and fauna within the observant pages of this novel. It really is a gift for the literary minded reader.
The sense of place, ultimate destruction, doom and foreboding that is expressed within the pages of Wolfe Island is ever strong. Treloar is a delicate storyteller, weaving an intricate story, complete with unexpected deviations, turns, moments of revelation and suspense. The structure taken by Lucy Treloar to Wolfe Island increases the engagement of the reader in this novel. The book is divided into three set parts and there are time shifts, which are often marked by seasonal changes. Accompanying the main narrative crux are observations made by Kitty, lists of visitors to the island, inventories of trash items collected on the island, lists of dragonflies, emergency survival pack items, wish-lists and show pieces. These additional aspects all culminate to provide another layer to this complex story. There were times where I had to really concentrate to situate myself in the locale and happenings in Wolfe Island, but once I settled into the flow of this novel I did enjoy it.
There are a range implicit themes that Lucy Treloar draws our attention to in her second novel. These include, human bonds, family ties, love, relationships, obligations, protection, trust, isolation, survival, dislocation, sanctuary and inequality. The broader concept of climate change, stemming from the changing nature of the ocean, serves as a forewarning of what is to come if we continue to abuse, rather than respect our environment. With the aid of a strong and mature female protagonist, with her loyal canine companion, Wolfe Island is an unusual and compelling cautionary tale from Lucy Treloar.
*Thanks extended to Pan Macmillan for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Wolfe Island is book #113 of the 2019 Australian Women Writers Challenge
October 18, 2019
Estranged from her family, Kitty Hawke lives alone on an island that is slowly sinking into Chesapeake Bay, in a world where millions of people can no longer find a home. One night, her granddaughter turns up at her door with three other young people looking for refuge. Their arrival turns Kitty's world upside-down.
Lucy Treloar's latest novel lures the reader in with its gentle, atmospheric prose so that when the storm hits you are taken by surprise, even though you know that trouble looms. This is a novel about love and belonging. To me, it appears to be asking, is home a place, or is it people? It explores notions of kindness and cruelty, generosity and selfishness, hope and despair. The descriptions of the island and the ocean are beautifully evocative and the story emotionally involving.
Lucy Treloar's latest novel lures the reader in with its gentle, atmospheric prose so that when the storm hits you are taken by surprise, even though you know that trouble looms. This is a novel about love and belonging. To me, it appears to be asking, is home a place, or is it people? It explores notions of kindness and cruelty, generosity and selfishness, hope and despair. The descriptions of the island and the ocean are beautifully evocative and the story emotionally involving.
September 22, 2019
What a very special, beautiful, mesmerising thing this is. I expected a lot after Salt Creek, but, boy, this is something else.
September 20, 2019
‘Slice a life anyway you like, and it’ll tell a different story.’
Kitty Hawke has lived on Wolfe Island (set off the north-eastern coast of the USA) all of her life. She’s the last person still living there as the island becomes eroded, salt affected and less habitable. She was married, to Hart, and had two children Claudie and Tobe. But island life was not for them. Kitty has her wolfdog Girl for company, and her work as a sculptor to keep her busy. Turmoil on the mainland is distant: Kitty is not unaware of problems on the mainland, but she doesn’t have to think about it too much. Until one day, when her sixteen-year-old granddaughter Cat arrives. Cat is accompanied by eighteen-year-old Josh and by Luis and Alejandra, a teenaged brother and seven-year-old sister. All four are seeking refuge.
The five of them, and Girl, work out ways of living together. While it becomes clear while Luis and Alejandra need refuge, it is less clear (at least to begin with) why Cat and Josh do. Alejandra is clearly traumatised; Luis is very protective. Cat wants to make a difference, by helping others who need help fleeing persecution. And Josh?
But the time comes when Wolfe Island is no longer safe. And Kitty must decide whether (and how) she can help those fleeing for their lives.
‘Get busy, that’s the way to deal with it. Doing something helps you forget your troubles.’
Much of the novel is a long journey, from past through present and into what is at best an uncertain future. Everyone must make choices, but Kitty’s choices are made more difficult because she is older and more aware of consequences. She’s practical and protective, focussed and strong. The group is travelling north, to try to find safety for Luis and Alejandra. Slowly stories unfold and as they do, I thought about the world this novel is set in. Much of it is recognisable: vigilantes focussed on who is ‘legal’ (or looks legal), suspicious of strangers, wanting to move on those who don’t belong. Kitty intervenes where she must to keep her group safe. The world is changing, and not for the better.
‘I still have to live with it, though. The rightness of an action doesn’t set you free from it; only sets you free from the danger.’
Kitty’s notebook, her writing, at first helps her adjust to life on Wolfe Island with others. It’s part reflection on the past, part list of things found and later events. We journey with Kitty, experience her concerns and regrets, understand her choices. And how will it end?
‘It’s a long time ago, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Memories are as faithful as dogs in their way, though not always tame.’
I finished this novel convinced that it will be one of my favourite novels of 2019. I’m writing this review a week later having reflected on why this novel has had such an impact on me. Kitty Hawke’s world is both bleak and beautiful, the threats faced feel so real, as do Kitty’s regrets. Ms Treloar conveys this story through Kitty and her connection to place, her observation of the world. There are hard edges, difficult choices and tragedy. There’s also reflection on the different forms of family, on the beauty of the natural environment, and what we all stand to lose.
‘We went out the next day, it being as fine and still as any other I have experienced, if not as warm. The algal blooms had died and the water had turned old-fashioned blue: taut, brimful, sequined.’
A novel that invites careful reading and reflection. A novel I will reread.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Kitty Hawke has lived on Wolfe Island (set off the north-eastern coast of the USA) all of her life. She’s the last person still living there as the island becomes eroded, salt affected and less habitable. She was married, to Hart, and had two children Claudie and Tobe. But island life was not for them. Kitty has her wolfdog Girl for company, and her work as a sculptor to keep her busy. Turmoil on the mainland is distant: Kitty is not unaware of problems on the mainland, but she doesn’t have to think about it too much. Until one day, when her sixteen-year-old granddaughter Cat arrives. Cat is accompanied by eighteen-year-old Josh and by Luis and Alejandra, a teenaged brother and seven-year-old sister. All four are seeking refuge.
The five of them, and Girl, work out ways of living together. While it becomes clear while Luis and Alejandra need refuge, it is less clear (at least to begin with) why Cat and Josh do. Alejandra is clearly traumatised; Luis is very protective. Cat wants to make a difference, by helping others who need help fleeing persecution. And Josh?
But the time comes when Wolfe Island is no longer safe. And Kitty must decide whether (and how) she can help those fleeing for their lives.
‘Get busy, that’s the way to deal with it. Doing something helps you forget your troubles.’
Much of the novel is a long journey, from past through present and into what is at best an uncertain future. Everyone must make choices, but Kitty’s choices are made more difficult because she is older and more aware of consequences. She’s practical and protective, focussed and strong. The group is travelling north, to try to find safety for Luis and Alejandra. Slowly stories unfold and as they do, I thought about the world this novel is set in. Much of it is recognisable: vigilantes focussed on who is ‘legal’ (or looks legal), suspicious of strangers, wanting to move on those who don’t belong. Kitty intervenes where she must to keep her group safe. The world is changing, and not for the better.
‘I still have to live with it, though. The rightness of an action doesn’t set you free from it; only sets you free from the danger.’
Kitty’s notebook, her writing, at first helps her adjust to life on Wolfe Island with others. It’s part reflection on the past, part list of things found and later events. We journey with Kitty, experience her concerns and regrets, understand her choices. And how will it end?
‘It’s a long time ago, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Memories are as faithful as dogs in their way, though not always tame.’
I finished this novel convinced that it will be one of my favourite novels of 2019. I’m writing this review a week later having reflected on why this novel has had such an impact on me. Kitty Hawke’s world is both bleak and beautiful, the threats faced feel so real, as do Kitty’s regrets. Ms Treloar conveys this story through Kitty and her connection to place, her observation of the world. There are hard edges, difficult choices and tragedy. There’s also reflection on the different forms of family, on the beauty of the natural environment, and what we all stand to lose.
‘We went out the next day, it being as fine and still as any other I have experienced, if not as warm. The algal blooms had died and the water had turned old-fashioned blue: taut, brimful, sequined.’
A novel that invites careful reading and reflection. A novel I will reread.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 16, 2020
‘Slice a life any way you like and it’ll tell a different story. Each cut shows something new; each might surprise or confound. Some parts you must expose with a delicate blade to keep them whole. It’s not an easy task; it takes patience. Not everyone likes to know this. You decide for yourself the things you want to know about yourself, even if not in your entirely conscious self; you choose not to peer down into the mess of it all.’
Wolfe Island is not a quick read. The novel itself is reasonably long, yes, but that’s not really what I’m talking about. It’s a story to savour and linger over; there is so much here within its pages to dwell on and reflect about within the context of the world and the changing environment that we are currently living in. The story is immersive and spans quite a long period of time from beginning through to the end. In this, it resembles a family saga, with Kitty at the helm. But along with the themes of family that drive the narrative, Wolfe Island is also a rather political novel, as well as providing a wealth of commentary on the more obvious theme of climate change that the story fundamentally orbits around.
Wolfe Island is my first taste of Lucy Treloar’s writing and what a treat this was. She writes in a way that makes you stop and think, hence the dwelling and lingering that was going on all the while that I was reading it. Many people have told me that this was a standout read for them last year, and it’s currently sitting on the ABIA 2020 literary fiction longlist. After having finally read it, I can see why. The praise is well deserved and I can now join the ranks of those who highly recommend it. I’m going to let Lucy’s own words from Wolfe Island close out this review, and I challenge you not to feel their impact as you read them.
On child birth:
‘She looked not light or loving or soft, but ferocious, like she knew things she hadn’t known before, and had been through something she didn’t know she could. No one can prepare you for it. You’ve been somewhere. Your body’s surprised you. Whatever you’ve felt before meant nothing. Nothing. This is the thing that matters. Nothing is more important; nothing explains more. You’re holding the world.’
On dogs:
‘There is something about a dog. They love freely; they do not judge or blame; they forgive. That’s a blessing every day of their lives and you pay for it when they die. It is a pure grief, and it carries all your other griefs along with it and sets them free, sweeping them up and carrying them along as fast and awful as any body of running water.’
On killing:
‘I felt hopeless now, saturated in the dreary violence of what I had made happen. I had lost something and I would never get it back.’
‘It’s not what you do, it’s why. That’s always true.’
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of Wolfe Island for review.
Wolfe Island is not a quick read. The novel itself is reasonably long, yes, but that’s not really what I’m talking about. It’s a story to savour and linger over; there is so much here within its pages to dwell on and reflect about within the context of the world and the changing environment that we are currently living in. The story is immersive and spans quite a long period of time from beginning through to the end. In this, it resembles a family saga, with Kitty at the helm. But along with the themes of family that drive the narrative, Wolfe Island is also a rather political novel, as well as providing a wealth of commentary on the more obvious theme of climate change that the story fundamentally orbits around.
Wolfe Island is my first taste of Lucy Treloar’s writing and what a treat this was. She writes in a way that makes you stop and think, hence the dwelling and lingering that was going on all the while that I was reading it. Many people have told me that this was a standout read for them last year, and it’s currently sitting on the ABIA 2020 literary fiction longlist. After having finally read it, I can see why. The praise is well deserved and I can now join the ranks of those who highly recommend it. I’m going to let Lucy’s own words from Wolfe Island close out this review, and I challenge you not to feel their impact as you read them.
On child birth:
‘She looked not light or loving or soft, but ferocious, like she knew things she hadn’t known before, and had been through something she didn’t know she could. No one can prepare you for it. You’ve been somewhere. Your body’s surprised you. Whatever you’ve felt before meant nothing. Nothing. This is the thing that matters. Nothing is more important; nothing explains more. You’re holding the world.’
On dogs:
‘There is something about a dog. They love freely; they do not judge or blame; they forgive. That’s a blessing every day of their lives and you pay for it when they die. It is a pure grief, and it carries all your other griefs along with it and sets them free, sweeping them up and carrying them along as fast and awful as any body of running water.’
On killing:
‘I felt hopeless now, saturated in the dreary violence of what I had made happen. I had lost something and I would never get it back.’
‘It’s not what you do, it’s why. That’s always true.’
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of Wolfe Island for review.
September 20, 2020
Wolfe Island* in Chesapeake Bay is disappearing under rising sea waters, sometime in a predictable future. Climate change isn’t mentioned, but its effects are drowning the islands and coastlines.
The island’s once fertile land is now mostly saltwater marshland or is so affected by rising salinity that almost nothing will grow. Houses are disintegrating, water sloshing around them. The graveyard is under water.
All residents have left, except for one woman, who stays on in the house where her family have lived for generations. Kitty Hawke is tough, wary, enjoys her solitude and self-sufficiency with the company only of her wolf-dog, girl.
She’s a sculptor, creates her makings from objects she retrieves from around the island, who earns enough to keep herself and to be able to set out on the journey at the centre of the story.
On the mainland (main) fear and hatred dominate. Strangers are not welcome anywhere, especially refugees from the flooded islands and coastlines, or from the south. Vigilantes (hunters) track down the refugees (runners), who are heading for the north, towards freedom.
Kitty enters this world after her granddaughter and three other young runners arrive on her island, fleeing from hunters. They are safe for a while, but the hunters find them.
They all leave, heading north. About a third of the book is taken up with the fearful journey north, and another third with Kitty’s journey back home. In the last part of book, Kitty’s relationships with her family are warily reconnected as she settles on main – her island home is gone.
It’s a bleak book but riveting.
I’ve pasted in some of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald interview with Treloar
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
An image of Kitty gazing out of the windows of her home first came to Treloar when she discovered a photograph online of a crumbling house, with a bird on its roof and a bulldozer parked nearby, that appeared to be floating on water. Homes are usually considered places of refuge but in this photograph, safety was under siege. The metaphorical resonances struck Treloar. The photograph showed a breakdown in order; the disintegration perfectly embodied our contemporary world.
"It was like an electric shock or a little bit like falling in love, and I just thought, 'How am I going to make that work? And what on Earth is going to be happening in that book?' But I knew that that was it, and I just had to work it out," Treloar says.
"I was thinking about how we all react in a world that seems to me to be in a phase of transition. So, for me, there's a lot of breaking down of the world order. There's the breaking down of politics, of landscape, of societal norms, of whole cultures and there's a huge amount of mobility."
Treloar struggled to find a disintegrating landscape in Australia that she could draw on for her novel's setting, but an Australia Council grant afforded her two research trips to the location of the online photograph, Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, in the states of Maryland and Virginia.
The island where the home in the photograph was built had been submerged by water in 2011, and there were many others set for a similar fate despite frantic efforts to save them. Treloar drove thousands of kilometres around the disappearing islands, which she describes as a "forgotten world", stopping to explore abandoned houses and talking to locals, who swung between denial and hopefulness about their future.
"It seemed saturated with melancholy to me, but also seemed extremely resilient and quite positive in a lot of ways," Treloar says.
The novelist's 2016 debut Salt Creek, a historical novel based on her own family history, was about a white pioneering farming family who take in an Aboriginal boy in South Australia in the 1850s. It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and won the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction. It was unintentional, but upon reflection Treloar recognises that if Salt Creek was about the beginning of colonisation and capitalism, then Wolfe Island is about their collapse. We've reached the end point.
Kitty is forced to stop looking out of the windows of her house, to go downstairs, open the door and confront the disturbing reality of the world when her granddaughter, Cat, arrives from the mainland, accompanied by her disgruntled boyfriend, Josh, and brother and sister Luis and Alejandra, who are on the run.
"It seems like Wolfe was rippling with their presence as if the island was a pond and they were thrown stones," Kitty says.
We're thrown into a world where order has collapsed as the migrant and climate crisis intersect. People are either "trackers" or “runners"; things are bad in "the South" and a place called Freedom exists in "the North"; armed vigilantes roam around repeating "vigilance from all, towards all".
In supermarket aisles, a message intermittently plays: "Remember the three Ps, everyone! Federal agents are authorised to search premises, persons and possessions at any time, and to examine and destroy any accompanied baggage or to take any suspicious persons into custody for further questioning". We're at the point of anarchy - every man, woman and child for themselves.
Imagery of wolves recurs - not only in the name of the island where Kitty lives but in her "wolf dog" named Girl. Girl treads the line between wildness and domestication, and as the novel progresses, it's a line we find the human characters treading and overstepping. (Treloar has two whippets, and from the sound of it, they too can be a little wild at times.) The novel shows how fractures in our imagined selves start to appear under the pressure of extreme circumstances.
"I was looking at how circumstances removed that veneer of civilisation, removed the veneer of domestication and we become hybrid creatures who are less ruled by law and order and tradition and sense of justice, than we are by survival and the protection of the people that we love," Treloar says.
The week Treloar first visited Chesapeake Bay was the week Trump was elected in 2016. It made writing the novel more difficult for her - how do you deal with what is unfolding in the world around you in a fictional sense? Treloar didn't want to write about Trump, and the closest direct reference is when red caps are worn in the novel. Yet even as Treloar thought she was creating a world too awful to be true, she found reality and fiction kept inching closer together.
"It was a very difficult book to write - much more difficult that I thought it would be - and I think it's partly because of this tussle that I was having with Trumpism and that feeling of the world lunging off centre much faster than I anticipated," Treloar says.
* Hypothetical island name
The island’s once fertile land is now mostly saltwater marshland or is so affected by rising salinity that almost nothing will grow. Houses are disintegrating, water sloshing around them. The graveyard is under water.
All residents have left, except for one woman, who stays on in the house where her family have lived for generations. Kitty Hawke is tough, wary, enjoys her solitude and self-sufficiency with the company only of her wolf-dog, girl.
She’s a sculptor, creates her makings from objects she retrieves from around the island, who earns enough to keep herself and to be able to set out on the journey at the centre of the story.
On the mainland (main) fear and hatred dominate. Strangers are not welcome anywhere, especially refugees from the flooded islands and coastlines, or from the south. Vigilantes (hunters) track down the refugees (runners), who are heading for the north, towards freedom.
Kitty enters this world after her granddaughter and three other young runners arrive on her island, fleeing from hunters. They are safe for a while, but the hunters find them.
They all leave, heading north. About a third of the book is taken up with the fearful journey north, and another third with Kitty’s journey back home. In the last part of book, Kitty’s relationships with her family are warily reconnected as she settles on main – her island home is gone.
It’s a bleak book but riveting.
I’ve pasted in some of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald interview with Treloar
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
An image of Kitty gazing out of the windows of her home first came to Treloar when she discovered a photograph online of a crumbling house, with a bird on its roof and a bulldozer parked nearby, that appeared to be floating on water. Homes are usually considered places of refuge but in this photograph, safety was under siege. The metaphorical resonances struck Treloar. The photograph showed a breakdown in order; the disintegration perfectly embodied our contemporary world.
"It was like an electric shock or a little bit like falling in love, and I just thought, 'How am I going to make that work? And what on Earth is going to be happening in that book?' But I knew that that was it, and I just had to work it out," Treloar says.
"I was thinking about how we all react in a world that seems to me to be in a phase of transition. So, for me, there's a lot of breaking down of the world order. There's the breaking down of politics, of landscape, of societal norms, of whole cultures and there's a huge amount of mobility."
Treloar struggled to find a disintegrating landscape in Australia that she could draw on for her novel's setting, but an Australia Council grant afforded her two research trips to the location of the online photograph, Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, in the states of Maryland and Virginia.
The island where the home in the photograph was built had been submerged by water in 2011, and there were many others set for a similar fate despite frantic efforts to save them. Treloar drove thousands of kilometres around the disappearing islands, which she describes as a "forgotten world", stopping to explore abandoned houses and talking to locals, who swung between denial and hopefulness about their future.
"It seemed saturated with melancholy to me, but also seemed extremely resilient and quite positive in a lot of ways," Treloar says.
The novelist's 2016 debut Salt Creek, a historical novel based on her own family history, was about a white pioneering farming family who take in an Aboriginal boy in South Australia in the 1850s. It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and won the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction. It was unintentional, but upon reflection Treloar recognises that if Salt Creek was about the beginning of colonisation and capitalism, then Wolfe Island is about their collapse. We've reached the end point.
Kitty is forced to stop looking out of the windows of her house, to go downstairs, open the door and confront the disturbing reality of the world when her granddaughter, Cat, arrives from the mainland, accompanied by her disgruntled boyfriend, Josh, and brother and sister Luis and Alejandra, who are on the run.
"It seems like Wolfe was rippling with their presence as if the island was a pond and they were thrown stones," Kitty says.
We're thrown into a world where order has collapsed as the migrant and climate crisis intersect. People are either "trackers" or “runners"; things are bad in "the South" and a place called Freedom exists in "the North"; armed vigilantes roam around repeating "vigilance from all, towards all".
In supermarket aisles, a message intermittently plays: "Remember the three Ps, everyone! Federal agents are authorised to search premises, persons and possessions at any time, and to examine and destroy any accompanied baggage or to take any suspicious persons into custody for further questioning". We're at the point of anarchy - every man, woman and child for themselves.
Imagery of wolves recurs - not only in the name of the island where Kitty lives but in her "wolf dog" named Girl. Girl treads the line between wildness and domestication, and as the novel progresses, it's a line we find the human characters treading and overstepping. (Treloar has two whippets, and from the sound of it, they too can be a little wild at times.) The novel shows how fractures in our imagined selves start to appear under the pressure of extreme circumstances.
"I was looking at how circumstances removed that veneer of civilisation, removed the veneer of domestication and we become hybrid creatures who are less ruled by law and order and tradition and sense of justice, than we are by survival and the protection of the people that we love," Treloar says.
The week Treloar first visited Chesapeake Bay was the week Trump was elected in 2016. It made writing the novel more difficult for her - how do you deal with what is unfolding in the world around you in a fictional sense? Treloar didn't want to write about Trump, and the closest direct reference is when red caps are worn in the novel. Yet even as Treloar thought she was creating a world too awful to be true, she found reality and fiction kept inching closer together.
"It was a very difficult book to write - much more difficult that I thought it would be - and I think it's partly because of this tussle that I was having with Trumpism and that feeling of the world lunging off centre much faster than I anticipated," Treloar says.
* Hypothetical island name
March 25, 2020
This one was a struggle. There was some beautiful writing but I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for something so poetic, confusing and utterly depressing. Reading in the time of Corona needs to be more hopeful and uplifting.
Kitty Hawke, a great grandmother who must only be about my age (gulp), is living on an island somewhere off the north east coast of the USA that is being drowned by rising sea levels. She makes a journey northwards with an odd collection of people & animals, through a lawless and frightening countryside to get them to “Freedom” which I assumed was Canada. She is a sculptor or creator of “makings” and has an estranged husband and distant, odd kind of relationship with her daughter. None of this is explained in the book so who knows, I might have it all wrong. What exactly they were running from or to is another mystery. Probably just the wrong time for me to be reading something like this.
Kitty Hawke, a great grandmother who must only be about my age (gulp), is living on an island somewhere off the north east coast of the USA that is being drowned by rising sea levels. She makes a journey northwards with an odd collection of people & animals, through a lawless and frightening countryside to get them to “Freedom” which I assumed was Canada. She is a sculptor or creator of “makings” and has an estranged husband and distant, odd kind of relationship with her daughter. None of this is explained in the book so who knows, I might have it all wrong. What exactly they were running from or to is another mystery. Probably just the wrong time for me to be reading something like this.
December 20, 2019
A melancholy lament for time, place and family. How to continue when what you know and love is threatened or lost. I would give 5 stars to the first half of this story set on Wolfe Island. The tension and mystery were skilfully written.
July 13, 2020
The author appears to have a fascination with people living on the fringe, given the background of her first book, although with historical events this gave substance for the read. However this read launches into a quagmire of events regarding illegal immigrants along with militias, vigilantes, police and border force endeavouring to track and imprison illegals/runners, while rescuers attempt to intervene and take them to safe haven. The whole read feels like a television series.
Kitty Hawke, the main character, appears to be of a selfish nature narrating about herself and of the unwelcomed events for the entire read which becomes tiring. She lives on this sinking island, the lone resident along with her wolfdog Girl. The island, before it started sinking, had a smattering of residents that had their own dialect and communicating with mainland residents caused difficulties at times. The island also has a tradition that girl children take on the family name of the mother while sons take on the family name of the father. Early on in Kitty's married life she returns to the island, unable to adapt to the mainland. Daughter Claudia Hawke and her son Tobermorey Darkness remain on the mainland with timely visits to their mother. Kitty practices her art form of Lost and Found Objects, recycling them into projects for which she has some acclaim to fame.
Kitty is unexpectedly visited by her granddaughter Catalina (Cat), although she doesn't recognise her immediately. Cat isn't alone; her travelling companions are a blond boy, Josh, a dark hair boy Luis and his small sister Alejandra (not their real names). Landing on the island during a wild night Kitty questions why of all places and in such terrible weather would Cat bring this group. She realises that they are "runners" when Luis searches for "trackers". Kitty is kept in the dark on all the events that have taken place and she promises not to reveal the group to anyone including Cat's mother.
Kitty who has fought to keep her distance from humanity is in a quandary, having runners on the island, ultimately means trackers at some stage will arrive. The gang of four take up residence in one of the uninhabited houses and for a time it all works well. Alejandra is a haunted and damaged child experiencing some terrible events in her young life, fortunately, she forms a bond with Kitty and the wolfdog which helps her mental well being. The situation changes when it's realised Cat is pregnant to Josh and everything is turned on its head. At times Josh and Cat return to the mainland which creates unease with everyone. It's all very secretive but Cat does reveal that she is a driver for people fleeing, part of a transport network.
Kitty has a strange relationship with a prisoner on death row and it's some way into this read before the connection to Tobe who is dead is revealed. Tobe had his own small shack on the island which is kept intact as a sort of memorial to him.
As events progress and the gang are discovered it becomes necessary to leave the island. They all load up into Kitty's husband's vintage vehicle and they head off via back roads in order to take Luis and Alejandra to "Freedom" where they are able to escape their captors.
Kitty Hawke, the main character, appears to be of a selfish nature narrating about herself and of the unwelcomed events for the entire read which becomes tiring. She lives on this sinking island, the lone resident along with her wolfdog Girl. The island, before it started sinking, had a smattering of residents that had their own dialect and communicating with mainland residents caused difficulties at times. The island also has a tradition that girl children take on the family name of the mother while sons take on the family name of the father. Early on in Kitty's married life she returns to the island, unable to adapt to the mainland. Daughter Claudia Hawke and her son Tobermorey Darkness remain on the mainland with timely visits to their mother. Kitty practices her art form of Lost and Found Objects, recycling them into projects for which she has some acclaim to fame.
Kitty is unexpectedly visited by her granddaughter Catalina (Cat), although she doesn't recognise her immediately. Cat isn't alone; her travelling companions are a blond boy, Josh, a dark hair boy Luis and his small sister Alejandra (not their real names). Landing on the island during a wild night Kitty questions why of all places and in such terrible weather would Cat bring this group. She realises that they are "runners" when Luis searches for "trackers". Kitty is kept in the dark on all the events that have taken place and she promises not to reveal the group to anyone including Cat's mother.
Kitty who has fought to keep her distance from humanity is in a quandary, having runners on the island, ultimately means trackers at some stage will arrive. The gang of four take up residence in one of the uninhabited houses and for a time it all works well. Alejandra is a haunted and damaged child experiencing some terrible events in her young life, fortunately, she forms a bond with Kitty and the wolfdog which helps her mental well being. The situation changes when it's realised Cat is pregnant to Josh and everything is turned on its head. At times Josh and Cat return to the mainland which creates unease with everyone. It's all very secretive but Cat does reveal that she is a driver for people fleeing, part of a transport network.
Kitty has a strange relationship with a prisoner on death row and it's some way into this read before the connection to Tobe who is dead is revealed. Tobe had his own small shack on the island which is kept intact as a sort of memorial to him.
As events progress and the gang are discovered it becomes necessary to leave the island. They all load up into Kitty's husband's vintage vehicle and they head off via back roads in order to take Luis and Alejandra to "Freedom" where they are able to escape their captors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2019
Wolfe Bay, set in the indeterminate near future, is a bleak book: it foreshadows the annihilation of home due to the rising oceans. However what it also shows is that catastrophe can bring out both the best and worst in people, often to their own surprise.
In a departure from the Australian setting of the award-winning Salt Creek (see my review) the central character of this novel lives in America. Kitty Hawke lives alone on high ground on (fictional*) Wolfe Island in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, where she creates art from the debris of summer houses lost to the sea. She is estranged from her husband and daughter on the mainland, and her son has died in circumstances not revealed until late in the book. She is not self-sufficient because the rising salt affects her attempts to grow vegetables, so she travels occasionally to the mainland to buy supplies and to sell her art to her agent. But other than that she has very little contact with other people and she likes it that way.
Over at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, clodge2013 has been posting all month about older women in literature. It's hard to know how much traction this initiative has had, but the reasons for it are obvious: the depiction of older women tends to be stereotypical even amongst contemporary authors. But that's not a trap Lucy Treloar has fallen into...
It's not quite clear how old Kitty is because both her daughter and granddaughter were/are very young mothers. But Kitty has acquired the patina of the older woman through her lifestyle. She lives independently on an island that everyone else has abandoned, and to the people on the mainland, she seems eccentric. Her husband is baffled by her defection: he does not understand her creative impulse. She lives for her art; she is wholly absorbed by it. She thinks about creating her 'makings' as she takes her walks over what's left of the island, and she 'disappears' for days on end when creating.
With weather-beaten skin and hair, Kitty dresses as she pleases, for comfort and practicality, with no thought of fashion or pleasing others. While warmth is crucial to survival in the hostile weather, food and cooking is not important to her, not unless it becomes a source of comfort to others, and she has had to compromise anyway because some foods are no longer available. She has had her share of threats from men who'd thought she was vulnerable and learned otherwise, and she's experienced their cowardly forms of revenge that take place when she isn't there. Her armour is her mature acceptance of things she cannot change. The past is there, and there is much to regret and be blamed for, but it cannot be changed.
Because she lives alone, she has become a little set in her ways. But she is strong and capable, and she's a quick thinker. Crucially, she can adapt to changing circumstances, and as the plot progresses she reveals latent skills (including some that shock) and a capacity for strategy. What surprises her, because she has done without love and family for so long, is her own resurgent love for the people that matter to her.
The catalyst for change is the unexpected arrival of three adolescents and a child.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/30/w...
In a departure from the Australian setting of the award-winning Salt Creek (see my review) the central character of this novel lives in America. Kitty Hawke lives alone on high ground on (fictional*) Wolfe Island in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, where she creates art from the debris of summer houses lost to the sea. She is estranged from her husband and daughter on the mainland, and her son has died in circumstances not revealed until late in the book. She is not self-sufficient because the rising salt affects her attempts to grow vegetables, so she travels occasionally to the mainland to buy supplies and to sell her art to her agent. But other than that she has very little contact with other people and she likes it that way.
Over at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, clodge2013 has been posting all month about older women in literature. It's hard to know how much traction this initiative has had, but the reasons for it are obvious: the depiction of older women tends to be stereotypical even amongst contemporary authors. But that's not a trap Lucy Treloar has fallen into...
It's not quite clear how old Kitty is because both her daughter and granddaughter were/are very young mothers. But Kitty has acquired the patina of the older woman through her lifestyle. She lives independently on an island that everyone else has abandoned, and to the people on the mainland, she seems eccentric. Her husband is baffled by her defection: he does not understand her creative impulse. She lives for her art; she is wholly absorbed by it. She thinks about creating her 'makings' as she takes her walks over what's left of the island, and she 'disappears' for days on end when creating.
With weather-beaten skin and hair, Kitty dresses as she pleases, for comfort and practicality, with no thought of fashion or pleasing others. While warmth is crucial to survival in the hostile weather, food and cooking is not important to her, not unless it becomes a source of comfort to others, and she has had to compromise anyway because some foods are no longer available. She has had her share of threats from men who'd thought she was vulnerable and learned otherwise, and she's experienced their cowardly forms of revenge that take place when she isn't there. Her armour is her mature acceptance of things she cannot change. The past is there, and there is much to regret and be blamed for, but it cannot be changed.
Because she lives alone, she has become a little set in her ways. But she is strong and capable, and she's a quick thinker. Crucially, she can adapt to changing circumstances, and as the plot progresses she reveals latent skills (including some that shock) and a capacity for strategy. What surprises her, because she has done without love and family for so long, is her own resurgent love for the people that matter to her.
The catalyst for change is the unexpected arrival of three adolescents and a child.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/30/w...
September 16, 2019
Lucy Treloar's protagonist, Kitty Hawke (yes, she recognises the significance of the unusual name!) is a middle aged woman who has chosen to live alone on the (fictional) Wolfe Island in the US. The island is succumbing to the ravages of climate change, through rising sea levels and increasing salt deposits. Kitty, the last permanent resident sees it as her responsibility to mark the changes through her notebook and her art - her 'makings' from things she scavenges from her island home. She has created the Watchmen, sculptures that stand guard at the dock and refer to the times when Wolfe Island was home to fisherman of abundant sealife. Kitty is at first nonplussed and then drawn in to the lives of three adolescents and a child who arrive on the island. Her estranged granddaughter, Cat, Cat's boyfriend and some 'runners' trying to make their way north to escape being hunted down as illegal immigrants.
I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction but there is a lot to like in this novel. The issues raised are of course very important and Treloar does a good job of dramatising them without preachiness. The character of Kitty in particular is memorable. However, when the group leaves the island and makes their way north, I found that it didn't sustain my interest to the same extent. It became a series of episodes, action more than character. I was pleased when Kitty returned to the island as I think that, apart from her character, the strongest part of the novel is the descriptions of the natural world, becoming ever more chaotic. I admire Treloar for trying something completely different from her first novel (Salt Creek, which I really loved) but this didn't reach the same heights for me.
Three and a half stars.
I'm not a fan of dystopian fiction but there is a lot to like in this novel. The issues raised are of course very important and Treloar does a good job of dramatising them without preachiness. The character of Kitty in particular is memorable. However, when the group leaves the island and makes their way north, I found that it didn't sustain my interest to the same extent. It became a series of episodes, action more than character. I was pleased when Kitty returned to the island as I think that, apart from her character, the strongest part of the novel is the descriptions of the natural world, becoming ever more chaotic. I admire Treloar for trying something completely different from her first novel (Salt Creek, which I really loved) but this didn't reach the same heights for me.
Three and a half stars.
August 7, 2020
It's not Lucy Treloar...it's me. I don't like dystopian fiction - never have, even though I've tried to read it from time to time. And even in the hands of a wonderful writer whose previous book I enjoyed enormously, I won't be swayed. But I can see that there's a good story in there, so I'm giving it 3 stars rather than the 2 that would have better reflected my level of enjoyment in reading it.
One thing I loved was the (fictional) Wolfe Island setting. I got such a vivid impression of this almost-drowned island, where the same families had lived for centuries. I totally got why Kitty was hanging on as the last inhabitant.
But the rest just did nothing for me I'm afraid. I think my problem is that dystopia usually has me geographically or temporally confused, if not both, as was the case here.
One thing I loved was the (fictional) Wolfe Island setting. I got such a vivid impression of this almost-drowned island, where the same families had lived for centuries. I totally got why Kitty was hanging on as the last inhabitant.
But the rest just did nothing for me I'm afraid. I think my problem is that dystopia usually has me geographically or temporally confused, if not both, as was the case here.
January 3, 2020
‘There’s not a one of us knows what we might do if things go wrong, if the people we love are in danger, or if we’re taken from our home and all the things that make us.’ These chilling words have been bouncing around my head all day. Lucy Treloar’s second novel looks at the all too real and current reality of when people must flee home and take flight and what they’ll do for family. These times will test us and books like this remind us that fiction does have a role to play in our climate emergency.
October 7, 2019
This book is all kinds of beautiful in writing, characterisation, themes and plot. Set in the near future, it gives a real and disturbing picture of what coastline communities face with rising sea levels and how humanity will respond as more and more lives are disrupted by climate change. It asks questions about what freedom will look like in the future and the lengths people will go to in securing it for those they love. Gripping, unique and unforgettable.
July 26, 2019
Wolfe Island is a book which will both break your heart and make you want to read it all over again. I love coming across a dystopian setting which is totally believable, nothing too out of the ordinary but deeply unsettling and this book gets that so right. We get to imagine a world submerging slowly as the water level rises inexorably, a world where intolerance of ‘illegals’ echoes events we witness today. Treloar takes this racial discrimination up a notch and yet her depiction of the illegal other is never clearly defined, merely hinted at in terms of their southern origins. On the run from authorities they are trying to reach the safe haven of the far north, accessible on roads policed by redneck vigilantes, incarnations of online trolls and gun-toting Republican Americans. I loved the main character Kitty, with her isolated fierceness, whose agency, so hard-won, is challenged repeatedly and never relinquished. As she is forced out of the (relative) comfort of artistic isolation into the full-blown but nonetheless healthy dysfunctionality of human and animal interactions, she gains a new emotional strength and way of seeing the world. This is a wonderful, wonderful read about family and ties that bind, about having the courage to care, about risk, compassion and the basic human right to freedom. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
September 18, 2019
Wolfe Island is set in the near future in the US and as the title suggests on an island. Lucy Treloar’s earlier book, Salt Creek was set in Australia and vividly brought to life 19th century Australia so I was looking forward to reading Wolfe Island. I wasn’t disappointed, it is a lovely and relevant book to the times we live in, and redolent with imagery of the landscape and well-drawn characters. I live on an island (Australia) and there is something magical about them but with the ocean on the doorstep of many islands in the world today this book is timely.
From the back cover: Kitty Hawke, the last inhabitant of a dying island sinking into the wind-lashed Chesapeake Bay, has resigned herself to annihilation . . . until one night her granddaughter blows ashore in the midst of a storm, desperate, begging for sanctuary. For years, Kitty has kept to herself–with only her wolf dog, Girl–unconcerned by the world outside, or perhaps avoiding its worst excesses. But blood cannot be turned away in times like these.
I loved Wolfe Island.
From the back cover: Kitty Hawke, the last inhabitant of a dying island sinking into the wind-lashed Chesapeake Bay, has resigned herself to annihilation . . . until one night her granddaughter blows ashore in the midst of a storm, desperate, begging for sanctuary. For years, Kitty has kept to herself–with only her wolf dog, Girl–unconcerned by the world outside, or perhaps avoiding its worst excesses. But blood cannot be turned away in times like these.
I loved Wolfe Island.
January 15, 2020
Exquisite beyond words. Just, brilliant.
November 15, 2019
I greatly admire authors who do not conform to one genre - while Salt Creek was historical fiction, Wolfe Island is set in the near future, and is designed to highlight the awful fears and prejudices we have against anyone who seems "other". This is an elegantly written story of people on the run, set against the backdrop of a changing climate, with a strong, older woman protagonist. Treloar is an impeccable character and place writer, and I challenge anyone to read this novel and not be moved by it. Readers should note triggers for murder by shooting, allusions to rape, violence against animals and prisoners on death row.
Kitty Hawke lives alone on Wolfe Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, with her wolfdog named Girl. Extreme weather has broken down the houses and eroded economic opportunity, so all others have fled, but Kitty's art, based on foraged items, and her connection to the land tethers her. When her granddaughter Cat arrives with a ragtag group - the confident Josh, haunted Luis and traumatized Alejandra - her distance from the outside world is shattered, and danger comes rushing in.
Treloar evokes the atmosphere of Wolfe Island in lyrical prose - I really felt I was there, with the encroaching sea, crisp cold and boggy marshland. Likewise, her characters pop off the page, illustrated with all their flaws and injuries. No-one in this novel escapes damage (either in their backstory or throughout the events of the plot), but part of Treloar's message is about human endurance in the face of trauma.
Her portrait of the mainland communities is generally one designed to shine a light on the fear of migrants Western countries show. These people are closed-minded, wary and utterly lacking in kindness. Treloar shows us that those on the run do so from desperation, and with good reason, and ought never be treated as less than human. Her story is a commentary on the unthinkable violence often perpetrated against these vulnerable people. The idea is introduced gradually - Kitty's isolation means we only come to understand the state of the mainland slowly, as if emerging from a fog.
Kitty is an unreliable narrator, but we understand the core traumas of her story to be true. I liked this side of her - outwardly she's such an independent, strong woman, but she doubts herself in realistic doses. It was also refreshing to have an older protagonist, who is a grandmother, yet still physically and mentally strong. Treloar's take is sophisticated, though - Kitty's strength and independence come at a cost. We need more stories with the sort of complexity Treloar has invested into her protagonist. She also shows the different types of strength women can show, through the risks her granddaughter Cat takes.
This story left me feeling profoundly unsettled - it captures the reality of life for some, and paints a bleak picture of a likely future. However, the stunningly beautiful prose helps to provide balance, even in moments of violence. Treloar's writing is sublime and if only for that, I recommend you pick this one up.
I received a copy of Wolfe Island from Pan MacMillan Australia in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Kitty Hawke lives alone on Wolfe Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, with her wolfdog named Girl. Extreme weather has broken down the houses and eroded economic opportunity, so all others have fled, but Kitty's art, based on foraged items, and her connection to the land tethers her. When her granddaughter Cat arrives with a ragtag group - the confident Josh, haunted Luis and traumatized Alejandra - her distance from the outside world is shattered, and danger comes rushing in.
Treloar evokes the atmosphere of Wolfe Island in lyrical prose - I really felt I was there, with the encroaching sea, crisp cold and boggy marshland. Likewise, her characters pop off the page, illustrated with all their flaws and injuries. No-one in this novel escapes damage (either in their backstory or throughout the events of the plot), but part of Treloar's message is about human endurance in the face of trauma.
Her portrait of the mainland communities is generally one designed to shine a light on the fear of migrants Western countries show. These people are closed-minded, wary and utterly lacking in kindness. Treloar shows us that those on the run do so from desperation, and with good reason, and ought never be treated as less than human. Her story is a commentary on the unthinkable violence often perpetrated against these vulnerable people. The idea is introduced gradually - Kitty's isolation means we only come to understand the state of the mainland slowly, as if emerging from a fog.
Kitty is an unreliable narrator, but we understand the core traumas of her story to be true. I liked this side of her - outwardly she's such an independent, strong woman, but she doubts herself in realistic doses. It was also refreshing to have an older protagonist, who is a grandmother, yet still physically and mentally strong. Treloar's take is sophisticated, though - Kitty's strength and independence come at a cost. We need more stories with the sort of complexity Treloar has invested into her protagonist. She also shows the different types of strength women can show, through the risks her granddaughter Cat takes.
This story left me feeling profoundly unsettled - it captures the reality of life for some, and paints a bleak picture of a likely future. However, the stunningly beautiful prose helps to provide balance, even in moments of violence. Treloar's writing is sublime and if only for that, I recommend you pick this one up.
I received a copy of Wolfe Island from Pan MacMillan Australia in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Read
September 26, 2019I did not finish the novel and, obviously, am at odds with so many of the emerging reviews. For the nearly 300 pages I read, I felt moved by the meticulously drawn landscape of the Chesapeake Bay region of America, particularly by the fictitious Wolfe Island, which had already been abandoned by all except one idiosyncratic resident, Kitty Hawke. As the waters continued to engulf it in a climate change scenario, Kitty steadfastly remained. She was surprisingly joined by her estranged granddaughter, who was involved in some kind of rescue mission for illegal immigrants.
And, it is here that my confusion grew. The story turned into an escape - from the sinking island and from the agents of a somewhat dystopic government who trace the granddaughter and her disparate group (two young men - one, an illegal with his little sister, and another who seemed to be the granddaughter's partner). The landscape remained a focus, a stark reminder that we were in the bleak near future. And, although I admired Treloar's skilled writing, I never felt attached to the characters - except perhaps to the innocent young child who had little understanding of what was going on and where her detained mother had been taken. Disappointing.
And, it is here that my confusion grew. The story turned into an escape - from the sinking island and from the agents of a somewhat dystopic government who trace the granddaughter and her disparate group (two young men - one, an illegal with his little sister, and another who seemed to be the granddaughter's partner). The landscape remained a focus, a stark reminder that we were in the bleak near future. And, although I admired Treloar's skilled writing, I never felt attached to the characters - except perhaps to the innocent young child who had little understanding of what was going on and where her detained mother had been taken. Disappointing.
October 5, 2019
A superbly written story of a woman who lives a precarious existence on an island that is being taken back by the ocean. Her life must change when others who need her arrive. It is hard not to fall in love with the stubborn and formidable Kitty.
February 27, 2020
The prevailing sense of dread in the first half of the book was a hard slog for me. I enjoyed the latter third more even though it was still bleak. An important and well written book but not necessarily enjoyable.
December 11, 2019
Wolfe Island (Picador Pan Macmillan) is the second novel from Lucy Treloar, the award-winning author of the historical Salt Creek. Wolfe Island takes us into the future instead of the past and is set on the other side of the world, in Chesapeake Bay, where the seas are rising as climate change is slowly devastating the land, reclaiming houses piece by piece. Kitty Hawke, the last inhabitant of the dying island of Wolfe, clings to her precarious existence with her wolfdog, Girl, and her makings – her repurposing of found materials into weird and wonderful, poignant and frightening, exotic and memorable sculptural artistic objects that she sells to eager collectors on the mainland. But everything changes the day Kitty’s granddaughter, Cat, arrives on a boat, with three others, escaping from who knows what, fleeing from someone or something, needing a place to hide and heading for the isolation of Wolfe Island and the unknown but assumed sanctuary of her grandmother. Kitty is unaccustomed to the company of kin or strangers and has long become used to her hermit lifestyle. But Cat is her granddaughter.
What follows is an incredible story of sacrifice, determination, hunter and prey, blood ties, the fragility of family, and the connection of the family we create ourselves from those unrelated that we collect along the way.
Lucy Treloar’s writing is assured, evocative, atmospheric and captivating. The literary language sings from the pages, each line a considered thought or a poetic image wrangled into the shape of sentences that make up a tense and frightening narrative. The characterisation is brilliant – Kitty is a strong and self-sufficient woman who makes a series of choices that we are privileged to witness from inside her head, as we journey with her as she grapples with those choices and their effects. The backstory of her family – her estranged husband, the fates of her children, her unfamiliar grandchild – are subtly woven throughout the book. Treloar never gives us too much too fast, but ekes out our curiosity with every chapter, with every new revelation.
This is a story about exile and Home, about belonging and escape, about the solidity of familiarity and the danger of strangeness. Wolfe Island is a modern parable about refugees and climate change, about power and protection, about greed and corruptibility, about the fear of those who have enough and the even stronger fear of those who have nothing. It is about the bond between dogs and humans, and about the necessary evils we commit to protect those we love. It’s about the acts we choose to do, or are forced to do, or decide not to do, and the repercussions of the totality of our actions. It is about guilt and cruelty and redemption and the powerful pull of the place we call Home. It is a prescient fable about the state of the world in which we live, and the terrible possibilities of the world of tomorrow, and the strength and will required from everyone, young and old, to survive. It depicts a world we find hard to imagine, and yet one which is instantly recognisable and believable. Without ever hitting the reader over the head with its message, the meaning and significance is unavoidable and clear: politics matter; climate change matters; our response to those less fortunate matters; our responsibility to the environment and to others – our humanity – ultimately matters most of all. This is a story of great empathy and compassion. It will stay with you – the issues, the characters, the themes, the difficulties, the attempts to right wrongs, the determination to survive, the love, the loss, the grief, the endless turning of the world and the impossible continuation of our very small lives within it. And the writing itself will have you staring at every page in awe and wonder. Wolfe Island is an impressive achievement on so many levels, and I suspect it will affect different readers in varying ways, according to their own circumstances. I found it beautiful, compelling and unforgettable.
What follows is an incredible story of sacrifice, determination, hunter and prey, blood ties, the fragility of family, and the connection of the family we create ourselves from those unrelated that we collect along the way.
Lucy Treloar’s writing is assured, evocative, atmospheric and captivating. The literary language sings from the pages, each line a considered thought or a poetic image wrangled into the shape of sentences that make up a tense and frightening narrative. The characterisation is brilliant – Kitty is a strong and self-sufficient woman who makes a series of choices that we are privileged to witness from inside her head, as we journey with her as she grapples with those choices and their effects. The backstory of her family – her estranged husband, the fates of her children, her unfamiliar grandchild – are subtly woven throughout the book. Treloar never gives us too much too fast, but ekes out our curiosity with every chapter, with every new revelation.
This is a story about exile and Home, about belonging and escape, about the solidity of familiarity and the danger of strangeness. Wolfe Island is a modern parable about refugees and climate change, about power and protection, about greed and corruptibility, about the fear of those who have enough and the even stronger fear of those who have nothing. It is about the bond between dogs and humans, and about the necessary evils we commit to protect those we love. It’s about the acts we choose to do, or are forced to do, or decide not to do, and the repercussions of the totality of our actions. It is about guilt and cruelty and redemption and the powerful pull of the place we call Home. It is a prescient fable about the state of the world in which we live, and the terrible possibilities of the world of tomorrow, and the strength and will required from everyone, young and old, to survive. It depicts a world we find hard to imagine, and yet one which is instantly recognisable and believable. Without ever hitting the reader over the head with its message, the meaning and significance is unavoidable and clear: politics matter; climate change matters; our response to those less fortunate matters; our responsibility to the environment and to others – our humanity – ultimately matters most of all. This is a story of great empathy and compassion. It will stay with you – the issues, the characters, the themes, the difficulties, the attempts to right wrongs, the determination to survive, the love, the loss, the grief, the endless turning of the world and the impossible continuation of our very small lives within it. And the writing itself will have you staring at every page in awe and wonder. Wolfe Island is an impressive achievement on so many levels, and I suspect it will affect different readers in varying ways, according to their own circumstances. I found it beautiful, compelling and unforgettable.
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