Islanders

by Cathy Thomas

'Wonderful, vivid, bittersweet' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

'Gritty, dark and joyful' Michelle Gallen, author of Big Girl, Small Town

'Riotously human and authentic' Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy

'Elegant, gritty, funny and unflinching' Luiza Sauma, author of Everything You Ever Wanted

Annie needs to lose her virginity, so she's waiting in a car park for Paul.

Paul needs drugs for the party, but he's got to keep an eye on his sister, Josie.

Josie needs a father figure. Or that's how it seems to her driving instructor, Neil.

Eva needs to get away from the island. She could do without bumping into the school bully, Kat.

Claire needs to drink herself into the mood for the hen do. But she's been betrayed by her childhood friend, Becky. And she can't stop thinking about what's happened to her sister, Kat ...

Set on the island of Guernsey over a period of twenty years, these closely linked stories reveal the desires, friendships, betrayals, regrets and heartaches of twelve intertwined people. Against a backdrop of picturesque cliffs and beaches, grimy clubs and pubs and chip shops, their stumbling attempts to connect with each other are depicted with wrenching pathos, wry humour and moving empathy.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Islanders with its alluring cover (which is the thing about this book that initially caught my eye) is a collection of short stories all set on the island of Guernsey. The reader is taken on a trip spanning twenty years. Each story is strong and engaging and features a group of intertwined people. Twelve characters, including Kat, Claire, Neil and Eva, share their thoughts, friendships, desires or regrets. Funny, authentic and gritty.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Little, Brown Book Group UK, Virago via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that reads as a full novel due to the characters all linking up and appearing across multiple stories.
This is about life on an island, seeming a dead end life, mostly dealing with younger people and their bad choices/limited options. I couldn’t decide if this was beautiful or depressing, to be honest. I’m going to go with a bit of both.
Exceptionally well written and fairly brief at just over 200 pages. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah I have mixed feelings about this one. It's a collection of short stories all set around the same group of people from Guernsey. It follows them over a twenty year period, switching points of view through a variety of characters from teens to their parents. It's a very honest kind of book though the language was a bit crude for my taste at times. I didn't have a wild childhood, hard to relate.

I think the short story format worked well as it gave a breadth of experiences that were all united by the island. It did lack development and detail because of it but that's a comprise that has to be made with this style of book.

Overall, I have mixed feelings. Some of the stories were more engaging than others.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Islanders, by Cathy Thomas, is a wonderful short story collection. It’s stories are told across a 20 year period, beginning in 2000. Nearly all the stories are set in Guernsey, and for the few set elsewhere we are still following the lives of the inhabitants of the island. One of the things that makes these stories so special is that the same characters are woven throughout them. Though each story is distinct, we learn so much about different cast of characters as the years go by. This is a really special book.

There are twelve stories in total in Islanders, all of which are as good as each other. The way that Thomas tells the islanders’ stories is so beautiful, they feel so alive on the page. She writes with such authenticity, these characters feel so very real, so human. Their lives are messy, complicated, full of joys and sorrows. We are witness to many different types of relationship, that between friends, siblings, parents and children and lovers. All of this together makes for such a rich read.

I loved finding out more about the characters as the stories developed. In some cases we got to see them several times, like siblings Paul & Josie whose stories bookend Islanders, and Becky and Luc who each pop up several times. Whilst with others, such as Goody and Jen we only really meet once properly and yet their stories are just as good. Guernsey is as much as a character as it is the setting in Islanders. Thomas’ writing is so vivid you feel as though you are there with the characters.

This is an easy read, you become so easily absorbed into the stories, and yet it covers some heavy topics. There are stories containing drug and alcohol misuse, alcoholism, suicide, crippling loneliness, physical violence and feelings of repressed sexuality. Thomas handles these issues with great care and you come to really feel for the characters, which is especially impressive given these are short stories.

Overall an excellent read which I’d throughly recommend.

With thanks to Netgally and Little, Brown Books for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of short stories. It's very rare for every story in a collection to be good, but these are all excellent.

[Aria Harlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really grwat collection of stories that were well written with good characterisation. They were all equally as good as each other, there wasn't a single one that drew my attention for being weaker than the rest

[Callum Morris-Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up.

Within this bittersweet, well-observed collection of interrelated short stories, all set on Guernsey where she grew up, Thomas plumbs the depths and breadths of human connection; her tales feeling universally all-embracing despite the insularity of their locale. Throughout, the reader becomes privy to parties in deteriorated war bunkers, the unfulfilled trysts of fish and chip shop workers, unduly blamed-and-shamed driving instructors, adolescent drug dealers, and more underrepresented lives behind the picturesque postcards. Thomas authentically explores the ennui of the island’s inhabitants and the curious magnetic pull it exerts on those who leave; the sense that one can “feel homesick for a time as much as a place”.

[Pauline Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consists of 12 short stories that sort of ‘overlap’ insofar as they all focus on the same group of people in growing up in Guernesey. The stories span 20 years and each is told from a different perspective.
To be honest I have never really been a short story fan, but something about this one piqued my interest and I actually really enjoyed it. I did feel that I engaged more with some stories than others, but when I look at the book as a whole, it was a good read.
The stories I felt were well written and that made for a nice smooth reading experience.
I would definitely recommend this book.

[Polly Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short read but packed with characters that were clearly defined and linked together through sex or drugs or just living on Guernsey. The life described of peer pressure, substance abuse, bullying, violence and escape was not always an easy read but was interesting and did make me glad I hadn’t grown up on Guernsey. There are hardly any references to any form of island idyll here, it is gritty and tough and at times sad.

[Maria Leon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite, clearly. Not to say that some of the stories weren’t good, but this particular collection didn’t move me as much. I was expecting “island summer” vibes and instead I got “depressing small town” vibes.

I give it 2.5 because some of the stories were okay, and because during some points it felt a bit nostalgic. However, it was hard to see how the whole of the stories come together regardless of connecting characters, etc.

This book just wasn’t for me :/

[Niamh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable.

Definitely not what I was expecting, but a lot better in many ways. It detailed the interconnected lives of a variety of people living on the island. I felt it was a very accurate & relatable portrayal of small island living, similar to small town living. Where the prospects aren’t great and the best thing to do is often to leave, but the mixture of feelings that come with leaving & the lives of those left behind.

[iansomething · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

The first story was so dull I figured they can’t get much better, so I returned it to the library the following day.

Snippet-
The ice chinked against his very white teeth as he drained his whiskey and coke. The music was vertiginously loud.

Who would ever say this or think this let alone write this? I don’t get it.

[Lieke]

‘Being such a good-looking man on a small island was not without its challenges. (…) It would take a public celebration of impolite scale to smoke out any remaining females hitherto untouched by his hands, and Goody was ready to find them.’

Boy I could just go on reading intertwined short story collections set on small islands forever. This one’s dark, funny and very well observed.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning collection of short stories. Each chapter immediately transported you to a specific time and place but the stories themselves were truly universal. Cathy Thomas manages to perfectly capture the moments that make up a life and a community. I loved it

[Caley Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect start to summer reading, I thoroughly enjoyed dipping into the lives of several inhabitants of Guernsey across a 20 year period. Each short story laces the characters together in some way or another, and makes for an easygoing but also gritty read. Also, the cover is just perfect!

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Islanders is raw, witty, alive; and carries with it a sense of shared nostalgia of adolescent years gone by. A treat of interconnected short stories spanning 20 years.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - Sad but funny & heartwarming at the same time, a good collection of stories for summer.

[Laura Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but it was a wonderful read. I expected a light and fun book about friends growing up. Instead, this was a deep collection of short stories focusing on a single snapshot of time one year at a time with occasional overlapping characters. It was sometimes hard to keep track of if I had background knowledge of a character from a previous story and I didn’t love every story, but overall these were wonderful characterizations of complex characters. Touching, raw, and poignant. My favorite line of the book was: “it was then that he realized you could be homesick for a time, not just a place.”