Gwinnett County Public Library discussion

The Islanders
By Christopher Priest

If you're looking for a theme of this book, you can find it right on the cover. Next to the title rests the phrase "All men are islands." And that's what we proceed to learn through an extended and complicated metaphor. Though the book itself makes the same point in many different ways, that phrase summarizes at least one of the themes nicely.

The novel takes place on a world with two large continents at the poles. The countries on the northern continent are at war. They use the southern continent as their battleground. But that's not where the action lies in this novel. In between the continents flows the Midway Sea, and in that sea are thousands of islands. (Or is it hundreds...or just dozens?) This is the Dream Archipelago, and each island is as different as the next, even if a few of them have the same name.

While the format of the book is a gazetteer of the islands, a sort of travel guide, you'll soon discover that you can't trust all of the information you're getting. And while some of the islands are given dry as dust descriptions about coastlines and wind patterns, others are described via the experiences of those living on them. There is murder, miscarriage of justice, love, death, art, and intrigue. It's not an easy book at times, but it's probably rewarding. Assuming I know what's going on.

To echo a line from the introduction: "I am in fact sceptical of the whole enterprise while liking it a great deal."