A review by serendipitysbooks
An Island by Karen Jennings

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

 An Island also by a South African author looks at the legacy of colonialism and the cost of unfulfilled expectations. Samuel is a lighthouse keeper, living a solitary life when a man, a refugee, washes up on his shore. Samuel expects and hopes the man will die but he does not. His arrival triggers flashbacks in Samuel to his former life, struggling for the independence of his country and later imprisoned for protesting against the dictator who took power. This novel takes place on just four days and has an abrupt maybe unexpected ending. It’s sparse tone and slim size reflect the island setting. It has a fable like quality and is impossible to read without drawing connections, both causal and metaphorical, between Samuel’s history and his actions toward the refugee. 
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