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The Islands
A moving and original debut novel. Observant, warm and extraordinary.
In the mid-1950s, a small group of Finnish migrants set up camp on Little Rat, a tiny island in an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. The crayfishing industry is in its infancy, and the islands, haunted though they are by past shipwrecks, possess an indefinable allure.
Drawn here by tragedy, Onni Saari is soon hooked by the stark beauty of the landscape and the slivers of jutting coral onto which the crayfishers build their precarious huts. Could these reefs, teeming with the elusive and lucrative cray, hold the key to a good life?
The Islands is the sweeping story of the Saari family: Onni, an industrious and ambitious young man, grappling with the loss of a loved one; his wife Alva, quiet but stoic, seeking a sense of belonging between the ramshackle camps of the islands and the dusty suburban lots of the mainland; and their pensive daughter Hilda, who dreams of becoming the skipper of her own boat. As the Saari's try to build their future in Australia, their lives entwine with those of the fishing families of Little Rat, in myriad and unexpected ways.
A stunning, insightful story of a search for home.
'There is an other-worldly quality about the Abrolhos which is beyond the reach of ordinary storytelling. Emily Brugman has captured them, staked them to the page in all their isolation and aridity and scoured indifference, because her storytelling is extraordinary.' Jock Serong, bestselling author of Preservation
'Strongly felt, deeply felt, original.' Tegan Bennett Daylight
'Beautiful, fresh, wise and true - startlingly good.' - Robert Drewe, award-winning author of Whipbird
'A beautiful, breathtaking, salty book about finding home on the far reaches of the continental shelf.' Marele Day, author of bestselling Lambs of God
In the mid-1950s, a small group of Finnish migrants set up camp on Little Rat, a tiny island in an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. The crayfishing industry is in its infancy, and the islands, haunted though they are by past shipwrecks, possess an indefinable allure.
Drawn here by tragedy, Onni Saari is soon hooked by the stark beauty of the landscape and the slivers of jutting coral onto which the crayfishers build their precarious huts. Could these reefs, teeming with the elusive and lucrative cray, hold the key to a good life?
The Islands is the sweeping story of the Saari family: Onni, an industrious and ambitious young man, grappling with the loss of a loved one; his wife Alva, quiet but stoic, seeking a sense of belonging between the ramshackle camps of the islands and the dusty suburban lots of the mainland; and their pensive daughter Hilda, who dreams of becoming the skipper of her own boat. As the Saari's try to build their future in Australia, their lives entwine with those of the fishing families of Little Rat, in myriad and unexpected ways.
A stunning, insightful story of a search for home.
'There is an other-worldly quality about the Abrolhos which is beyond the reach of ordinary storytelling. Emily Brugman has captured them, staked them to the page in all their isolation and aridity and scoured indifference, because her storytelling is extraordinary.' Jock Serong, bestselling author of Preservation
'Strongly felt, deeply felt, original.' Tegan Bennett Daylight
'Beautiful, fresh, wise and true - startlingly good.' - Robert Drewe, award-winning author of Whipbird
'A beautiful, breathtaking, salty book about finding home on the far reaches of the continental shelf.' Marele Day, author of bestselling Lambs of God
312 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2022
26 people are currently reading
769 people want to read
About the author
Emily Brugman
3 books15 followersEmily Brugman grew up in Broulee, on the far south coast of NSW, on the lands of the Yuin people. Her writing has previously appeared in literary journals, magazines and anthologies, including Tracks, the UTS Writers' Anthology and Lines to the Horizon: Australian surf writing.
She currently lives in Mullumbimby, on Bundjalung country, and works at Byron Writers Festival. The Islands, her first novel, is inspired by her family's experiences living and working on the Abrolhos Islands between 1959-1972.
She currently lives in Mullumbimby, on Bundjalung country, and works at Byron Writers Festival. The Islands, her first novel, is inspired by her family's experiences living and working on the Abrolhos Islands between 1959-1972.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
March 25, 2022
Onni Sara arrived on Little Rat Island, in the Abrolhos islands 80 km off the coast of Western Australia, to look for his brother Nalle, missing at sea while out fishing for crayfish. With no sightings of his brother or his boat, Onni decided to give up his mining lease and take up his brother’s cray licence and move into his fishing shack, joining the group of Finnish fishermen who had been there since the 1950s. He’d already left his life in rural Finland to become a miner so now he could become a fisherman. Onni’s wife Alva would come to love the island life, as would his daughter Hilda and both of them would miss it when Hilda started school and they had to remain in Geraldton while Onni fished, only able to visit Little Rat in the holidays.
This very fine debut novel is not only an intergenerational family saga, but one of migrants who have left everything behind in their homes for the chance of a better life for themselves and their families. The Finns on Little Rat Island brought with them their traditions, folklore, songs and superstitions and were still able to share and enjoy their culture but as Alva was to find out when she and Hilda moved to the mainland for school, the Australia of the 1960s was a very racist society, with people being fearful of those who were ‘different’ in skin tone or culture.
Emily Brugman’s writing is very evocative and I loved the way the novel consisted of chapters that were stories within the story. Her characters are strong and resilient, particularly Alva who perseveres no matter what life throws at her (the Finns say she has susu). The Abrolhos are a character in their own right. Reading the author’s descriptions, I can feel the bright heat of the day, the deep blue of the sky, the deep clear sea and the sun dried salt water encrusted on my skin and hear the fisherman returning with their catch. A haunting, beautifully written debut novel, full of love, loss, new beginnings and the meaning of home.
With thanks to Allen & Unwin for a copy to read
....................................................................................................
I love the cover on the book but didn't realise it's meaning until Anita pointed out in her review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) that it represents the Finnish myth of the sampo which is talked about in the novel – it's a mill which would bring riches to its holder, forged from the tips of white swan feathers, grains of barley, wool of lambkins.
This very fine debut novel is not only an intergenerational family saga, but one of migrants who have left everything behind in their homes for the chance of a better life for themselves and their families. The Finns on Little Rat Island brought with them their traditions, folklore, songs and superstitions and were still able to share and enjoy their culture but as Alva was to find out when she and Hilda moved to the mainland for school, the Australia of the 1960s was a very racist society, with people being fearful of those who were ‘different’ in skin tone or culture.
Emily Brugman’s writing is very evocative and I loved the way the novel consisted of chapters that were stories within the story. Her characters are strong and resilient, particularly Alva who perseveres no matter what life throws at her (the Finns say she has susu). The Abrolhos are a character in their own right. Reading the author’s descriptions, I can feel the bright heat of the day, the deep blue of the sky, the deep clear sea and the sun dried salt water encrusted on my skin and hear the fisherman returning with their catch. A haunting, beautifully written debut novel, full of love, loss, new beginnings and the meaning of home.
With thanks to Allen & Unwin for a copy to read
....................................................................................................
I love the cover on the book but didn't realise it's meaning until Anita pointed out in her review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) that it represents the Finnish myth of the sampo which is talked about in the novel – it's a mill which would bring riches to its holder, forged from the tips of white swan feathers, grains of barley, wool of lambkins.
July 22, 2022
It was the mid 1950s when Onni Saari and his wife, Alva, migrated from Finland to Australia, eventually arriving in Western Australia. Onni's brother Nalle had arrived a couple of years earlier and was a crayfisherman, living and working on Little Rat, an island in an archipelago out from the coast of WA. When Onni received a visit from the local police to say Nalle was missing at sea, Onni was taken straight to Little Rat, a good few hours by boat. The Finns searched for a few days especially around Disappearing Island, but Nalle was gone. Onni was heartbroken...
Onni and Alva took over Nalle's shack and boat, and Onni became a crayfisherman. He took to it well, being taught by the other men who'd been there longer, and found he enjoyed the work and learned to judge the seas - when it was safe, when it was not, when a storm was coming. As the season finished, most of the families moved back to their homes on the mainland, to Geraldton, spending around eight months of each year there before going back to the islands. When Alva had their daughter, Hilda, she only remained in Geraldton for four weeks before they joined Onni back on Little Rat. The children, as they grew, loved the island and played constantly, weaving the families together.
The Islands is the debut novel by Aussie author Emily Brugman and it was different, intriguing, fascinating and extraordinary. I was captivated and read it in a matter of hours. The stoic nature of the Finns, especially Onni and Alva, meant emotions weren't often shown. But that changed, slowly, as the years went by. Highly recommended.
Onni and Alva took over Nalle's shack and boat, and Onni became a crayfisherman. He took to it well, being taught by the other men who'd been there longer, and found he enjoyed the work and learned to judge the seas - when it was safe, when it was not, when a storm was coming. As the season finished, most of the families moved back to their homes on the mainland, to Geraldton, spending around eight months of each year there before going back to the islands. When Alva had their daughter, Hilda, she only remained in Geraldton for four weeks before they joined Onni back on Little Rat. The children, as they grew, loved the island and played constantly, weaving the families together.
The Islands is the debut novel by Aussie author Emily Brugman and it was different, intriguing, fascinating and extraordinary. I was captivated and read it in a matter of hours. The stoic nature of the Finns, especially Onni and Alva, meant emotions weren't often shown. But that changed, slowly, as the years went by. Highly recommended.
March 27, 2022
4.5★
“Twenty-one corrugated-iron camps now lined the island’s eastern flank, from which a series of topsy-turvy jetties extended like fractured finger bones. It resembled a small, ramshackle village.”
The Houtman Abrolhos, a group of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, about 80km off the west coast of Western Australia, are where Finnish fishermen established these (mostly) summer camps. The men came from Finland to make money in the WA mines, but gradually some moved to the coast to take up fishing.
When Onni Saari, who is still at the mines, is told his brother Nalle has disappeared at sea, he goes to help with the search. An old fisherman, Sulo, takes him out, and when they haven’t found Nalle, he advises Onni against taking up the fishing lease himself.
‘Think hard on it, Onni,’ Sulo advised . . . ‘You lot, you’re farm boys.’
. . .
It was true, Onni and Nalle Saari came from central Finland, from undulating hills and flat cow paddocks, from dense forests of spruce, pine and birch. The water lived in the people there too, but in narrow stretches traversed in rowboats. In the summer months, before the lakes and rivers froze over, they’d drop small nets and pull up ‘ahven’ to salt or smoke or char on the sauna rocks.”
But Onni doesn’t dispel the thought that Nalle may turn up, so he and Alva move out to Nalle’s humpy to work the lease and become part of the tiny community.
[The women] “had come from Finland, enticed by the sun and a young man with ideas of making good in this place of opportunity. Both women had spent a stint in the outback first, though at separate times, when their husbands had tried their hands at prospecting. But they both preferred a fisherman’s shack to a miner’s humpy. Preferred the sea breeze to the stifling inland heat.”
Fishing on the islands is a summer life, with hard work, a lot of mess and smell and blood and guts, but they seemed to take naturally to it. Many couldn’t swim (including Nalle), but they don’t want to think about the dangers. Alva worries.
“But he could not talk about what happened. Onni was a house with all its doors and windows closed. Alva longed to be let in.
Petra nodded. It was no surprise to her. ‘I know a joke that will cheer you up.’
Alva waited.
‘There was once a Finn who loved his wife so much, he almost told her.’”
Onni isn’t the only man who keeps his feelings to himself. Also on the island is an older fellow, Latvian Igor, as they call him. He lives out there all year round, completely alone, seeming to be punishing himself. Unlike the other men, he has no woman.
“It was a good place for getting pregnant, the women on the islands joked. By which they meant that once the boats were in and the fishing was done, there was little else to do. Yes, the islands had a way of coaxing you into the quiet belly of a tin hut on a lazy afternoon.”
Alva becomes pregnant (those sleepy afternoons) and has to go to Geraldton on the mainland to have the baby. Like many of the others, she speaks very little English. She is already terrified, and when the pains start, she goes a bit nuts. Finally, after the birth, a nurse sits with her, but I doubt her words would have been of any comfort.
“‘You know,’ said the nurse, watching Alva watch the infant, ‘you’ll never have another worry-free day for the rest of your life.’
Alva went back over the words, trying to decipher them. She felt the nurse had said something profound. For Alva, trying to interpret the strange drawling English of Australians was like being on one side of a thick stone wall while a conversation took place on the other side. Her ears were always pricked.”
Back on the island with a new baby, Alva makes a home.
“Each day Alva would walk along the rocky perimeter of Little Rat with Hilda wrapped tight and slung across her chest. She scanned the ground, looking for small treasures. A knob of dried coral to sit on the windowsill, an abalone shell in which to place the soap. A splinter of driftwood, its surface rubbed smooth by the water, on which she wrote ‘Little Rat Island, April 1960’, before putting it next to the coral fragment.”
It's a long way from Finland, and she’s surprised to find herself here.
“The islands were a poor excuse for a home, thought Alva, as she took in the view of the archipelago. To think that people had looked at them and thought: yes, these should do just fine! She looked about and shook her head in wonder, her watery blue eyes giving away her overwhelming delight – for how glad she was to be here!”
Baby Hilda grows up loving the islands and the fishing. She shadows (pesters) old Igor, who puts up with her because she seems genuinely interested in what he knows. He’s another collector of artefacts, bits and pieces, some of them from the wreck of the ‘Batavia’, which sank on the reef in 1629.
When the kids hit school age, they live in Geraldton with their mothers and go the islands only during the holidays. Hilda wants to fish, like her father, like the boys who fish with theirs, and she’s far less squeamish about killing and cleaning the fish and crays than the others.
As she and the other girls and boys grow up, they are Australian teens, very unlike their parents. The story is told from different points of view and sometimes in flashback. This gives us the opportunity to see an event firsthand when it happens and then again from someone else’s memory.
It’s an unusual story in that life on the islands sounds more like colonial history than modern, but the author knows her characters and handles them well. The Finns adopt some Aussie ways, as they move around the country, but their ‘pagan’ customs and holidays are still celebrated. There are many Finnish expressions and words, not all of which are translated, but the sense is never in doubt.
The moods and settings change from lazy shell collecting to intense personal relationships to wild storms at sea. This is a chilling excerpt:
“Then the first liquid mountain rose up before him and Onni felt an awful lightness take hold. The boat lurched over the summit, dropped out of the ceiling and came slamming down on the other side. Onni lost his footing, ramming his shoulder into the side panel of the wheelhouse. It was the valley between waves that scared him the most. Down there in the crooked elbow of the sea, where it was eerily still. Then the sudden rush of wind as the boat heaved skywards again. The world now shattered at intervals under an electric shimmer. It was the most beautiful and terrifying sight Onni had ever seen.”
This is an unusual debut novel and a great read. I certainly look forward to more from Emily Brugman. Thanks to NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for the copy for review.
“Twenty-one corrugated-iron camps now lined the island’s eastern flank, from which a series of topsy-turvy jetties extended like fractured finger bones. It resembled a small, ramshackle village.”
The Houtman Abrolhos, a group of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, about 80km off the west coast of Western Australia, are where Finnish fishermen established these (mostly) summer camps. The men came from Finland to make money in the WA mines, but gradually some moved to the coast to take up fishing.
When Onni Saari, who is still at the mines, is told his brother Nalle has disappeared at sea, he goes to help with the search. An old fisherman, Sulo, takes him out, and when they haven’t found Nalle, he advises Onni against taking up the fishing lease himself.
‘Think hard on it, Onni,’ Sulo advised . . . ‘You lot, you’re farm boys.’
. . .
It was true, Onni and Nalle Saari came from central Finland, from undulating hills and flat cow paddocks, from dense forests of spruce, pine and birch. The water lived in the people there too, but in narrow stretches traversed in rowboats. In the summer months, before the lakes and rivers froze over, they’d drop small nets and pull up ‘ahven’ to salt or smoke or char on the sauna rocks.”
But Onni doesn’t dispel the thought that Nalle may turn up, so he and Alva move out to Nalle’s humpy to work the lease and become part of the tiny community.
[The women] “had come from Finland, enticed by the sun and a young man with ideas of making good in this place of opportunity. Both women had spent a stint in the outback first, though at separate times, when their husbands had tried their hands at prospecting. But they both preferred a fisherman’s shack to a miner’s humpy. Preferred the sea breeze to the stifling inland heat.”
Fishing on the islands is a summer life, with hard work, a lot of mess and smell and blood and guts, but they seemed to take naturally to it. Many couldn’t swim (including Nalle), but they don’t want to think about the dangers. Alva worries.
“But he could not talk about what happened. Onni was a house with all its doors and windows closed. Alva longed to be let in.
Petra nodded. It was no surprise to her. ‘I know a joke that will cheer you up.’
Alva waited.
‘There was once a Finn who loved his wife so much, he almost told her.’”
Onni isn’t the only man who keeps his feelings to himself. Also on the island is an older fellow, Latvian Igor, as they call him. He lives out there all year round, completely alone, seeming to be punishing himself. Unlike the other men, he has no woman.
“It was a good place for getting pregnant, the women on the islands joked. By which they meant that once the boats were in and the fishing was done, there was little else to do. Yes, the islands had a way of coaxing you into the quiet belly of a tin hut on a lazy afternoon.”
Alva becomes pregnant (those sleepy afternoons) and has to go to Geraldton on the mainland to have the baby. Like many of the others, she speaks very little English. She is already terrified, and when the pains start, she goes a bit nuts. Finally, after the birth, a nurse sits with her, but I doubt her words would have been of any comfort.
“‘You know,’ said the nurse, watching Alva watch the infant, ‘you’ll never have another worry-free day for the rest of your life.’
Alva went back over the words, trying to decipher them. She felt the nurse had said something profound. For Alva, trying to interpret the strange drawling English of Australians was like being on one side of a thick stone wall while a conversation took place on the other side. Her ears were always pricked.”
Back on the island with a new baby, Alva makes a home.
“Each day Alva would walk along the rocky perimeter of Little Rat with Hilda wrapped tight and slung across her chest. She scanned the ground, looking for small treasures. A knob of dried coral to sit on the windowsill, an abalone shell in which to place the soap. A splinter of driftwood, its surface rubbed smooth by the water, on which she wrote ‘Little Rat Island, April 1960’, before putting it next to the coral fragment.”
It's a long way from Finland, and she’s surprised to find herself here.
“The islands were a poor excuse for a home, thought Alva, as she took in the view of the archipelago. To think that people had looked at them and thought: yes, these should do just fine! She looked about and shook her head in wonder, her watery blue eyes giving away her overwhelming delight – for how glad she was to be here!”
Baby Hilda grows up loving the islands and the fishing. She shadows (pesters) old Igor, who puts up with her because she seems genuinely interested in what he knows. He’s another collector of artefacts, bits and pieces, some of them from the wreck of the ‘Batavia’, which sank on the reef in 1629.
When the kids hit school age, they live in Geraldton with their mothers and go the islands only during the holidays. Hilda wants to fish, like her father, like the boys who fish with theirs, and she’s far less squeamish about killing and cleaning the fish and crays than the others.
As she and the other girls and boys grow up, they are Australian teens, very unlike their parents. The story is told from different points of view and sometimes in flashback. This gives us the opportunity to see an event firsthand when it happens and then again from someone else’s memory.
It’s an unusual story in that life on the islands sounds more like colonial history than modern, but the author knows her characters and handles them well. The Finns adopt some Aussie ways, as they move around the country, but their ‘pagan’ customs and holidays are still celebrated. There are many Finnish expressions and words, not all of which are translated, but the sense is never in doubt.
The moods and settings change from lazy shell collecting to intense personal relationships to wild storms at sea. This is a chilling excerpt:
“Then the first liquid mountain rose up before him and Onni felt an awful lightness take hold. The boat lurched over the summit, dropped out of the ceiling and came slamming down on the other side. Onni lost his footing, ramming his shoulder into the side panel of the wheelhouse. It was the valley between waves that scared him the most. Down there in the crooked elbow of the sea, where it was eerily still. Then the sudden rush of wind as the boat heaved skywards again. The world now shattered at intervals under an electric shimmer. It was the most beautiful and terrifying sight Onni had ever seen.”
This is an unusual debut novel and a great read. I certainly look forward to more from Emily Brugman. Thanks to NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for the copy for review.
February 27, 2022
If you’re into place-as-character in novels, The Islands is a must-read. Brugman blends some of the richest Australian place writing I’ve ever read with Finnish tradition and stories-within-stories. You can practically taste the salt air and the sea spray. Even if that’s not your jam, you’ll be drawn in by the close examination of the migrant journey – physical and emotional.
Read my full review of The Islands on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
Read my full review of The Islands on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
March 22, 2022
The Islands is the first novel by Australian author, Emily Brugman. The audio version is narrated by Jennifer Vuletic. While Onni Saari’s brother, Nalle was not one of the original five Finns to take up a crayfishing lease on Little Rat Island off the coast of Western Australia, back around 1950, he came not long after. When, five years later, Nalle goes missing without a trace, presumed drowned (or worse), Onni quits his mining job, takes over the lease and brings his wife, Alva over for the season.
Alva is a little surprised to find that she quickly settles on this barren speck of crushed coral out in the Indian Ocean, connecting with the other wives, and looking forward to each return from necessary trips to Geraldton. After too long waiting for her to be born, she quickly brings baby Hilda home to the island.
During the off-season in Geraldton, members of this tight-knit little island community of Finns negotiate integration into a society, culture and expectations very different to their own, but not all abandon their language or the pagan superstitions and rituals that ward off evil, keep them safe or bring luck.
While the story is mostly of Onni and Alva and their close family, it is also told from many other perspectives, describing significant events and incidents in the lives of the community, as well as some of Alva’s and Onni’s back stories.
Brugman’s gorgeous, lyrical prose and exquisite descriptions tell of moments of cruelty and kindness, sorrow and joy, belonging and grief and, as the next generations come of age, confusion, loyalty and betrayal. Her taciturn Finns, when they do speak, share philosophy and wisdom. She heads her chapters by naming what is significant therein.
“The tourist boat headed back east, and Onni watched the islands dip below the horizon. He’d learned many years ago that the Sampo couldn’t be kept.
It was a feeling.
A moment.
A shard of island that may disappear at any time in the waters of a rising sea.”
A glossary of common Finn words is the only thing that could enhance this marvellous debut novel.
Alva is a little surprised to find that she quickly settles on this barren speck of crushed coral out in the Indian Ocean, connecting with the other wives, and looking forward to each return from necessary trips to Geraldton. After too long waiting for her to be born, she quickly brings baby Hilda home to the island.
During the off-season in Geraldton, members of this tight-knit little island community of Finns negotiate integration into a society, culture and expectations very different to their own, but not all abandon their language or the pagan superstitions and rituals that ward off evil, keep them safe or bring luck.
While the story is mostly of Onni and Alva and their close family, it is also told from many other perspectives, describing significant events and incidents in the lives of the community, as well as some of Alva’s and Onni’s back stories.
Brugman’s gorgeous, lyrical prose and exquisite descriptions tell of moments of cruelty and kindness, sorrow and joy, belonging and grief and, as the next generations come of age, confusion, loyalty and betrayal. Her taciturn Finns, when they do speak, share philosophy and wisdom. She heads her chapters by naming what is significant therein.
“The tourist boat headed back east, and Onni watched the islands dip below the horizon. He’d learned many years ago that the Sampo couldn’t be kept.
It was a feeling.
A moment.
A shard of island that may disappear at any time in the waters of a rising sea.”
A glossary of common Finn words is the only thing that could enhance this marvellous debut novel.
February 18, 2022
The Islands is the first novel by Australian author, Emily Brugman. While Onni Saari’s brother, Nalle was not one of the original five Finns to take up a crayfishing lease on Little Rat Island off the coast of Western Australia, back around 1950, he came not long after. When, five years later, Nalle goes missing without a trace, presumed drowned (or worse), Onni quits his mining job, takes over the lease and brings his wife, Alva over for the season.
Alva is a little surprised to find that she quickly settles on this barren speck of crushed coral out in the Indian Ocean, connecting with the other wives, and looking forward to each return from necessary trips to Geraldton. After too long waiting for her to be born, she quickly brings baby Hilda home to the island.
During the off-season in Geraldton, members of this tight-knit little island community of Finns negotiate integration into a society, culture and expectations very different to their own, but not all abandon their language or the pagan superstitions and rituals that ward off evil, keep them safe or bring luck.
While the story is mostly of Onni and Alva and their close family, it is also told from many other perspectives, describing significant events and incidents in the lives of the community, as well as some of Alva’s and Onni’s back stories.
Brugman’s gorgeous, lyrical prose and exquisite descriptions tell of moments of cruelty and kindness, sorrow and joy, belonging and grief and, as the next generations come of age, confusion, loyalty and betrayal. Her taciturn Finns, when they do speak, share philosophy and wisdom. She heads her chapters by naming what is significant therein.
“The tourist boat headed back east, and Onni watched the islands dip below the horizon. He’d learned many years ago that the Sampo couldn’t be kept.
It was a feeling.
A moment.
A shard of island that may disappear at any time in the waters of a rising sea.”
A glossary of common Finn words is the only thing that could enhance this marvellous debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.
Alva is a little surprised to find that she quickly settles on this barren speck of crushed coral out in the Indian Ocean, connecting with the other wives, and looking forward to each return from necessary trips to Geraldton. After too long waiting for her to be born, she quickly brings baby Hilda home to the island.
During the off-season in Geraldton, members of this tight-knit little island community of Finns negotiate integration into a society, culture and expectations very different to their own, but not all abandon their language or the pagan superstitions and rituals that ward off evil, keep them safe or bring luck.
While the story is mostly of Onni and Alva and their close family, it is also told from many other perspectives, describing significant events and incidents in the lives of the community, as well as some of Alva’s and Onni’s back stories.
Brugman’s gorgeous, lyrical prose and exquisite descriptions tell of moments of cruelty and kindness, sorrow and joy, belonging and grief and, as the next generations come of age, confusion, loyalty and betrayal. Her taciturn Finns, when they do speak, share philosophy and wisdom. She heads her chapters by naming what is significant therein.
“The tourist boat headed back east, and Onni watched the islands dip below the horizon. He’d learned many years ago that the Sampo couldn’t be kept.
It was a feeling.
A moment.
A shard of island that may disappear at any time in the waters of a rising sea.”
A glossary of common Finn words is the only thing that could enhance this marvellous debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.
March 9, 2022
4.5★
Not just a stunning cover, but also a refreshingly different and remarkably accomplished debut. I didn't want it to end, and can imagine re-reading it one day.
I had heard of the Abrolhos Islands, off the WA coast, but that's about it. Now, of course, I want to go there! But in a way I've already been, because Emily Brugman has painted such a detailed and lifelike picture of the archipelago in her story of the Saari family and the (mainly) Finnish community that eked a living from Little Rat island in the latter half of the 20th century. If you look for images online, you'll recognise Little Rat and instantly see the authenticity that imbues the novel.
With characters that you'll grow to love and writing that just sweeps you into this gentle and quiet story and holds you there, The Islands truly is something a bit special.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for an uncorrected proof to read.
Not just a stunning cover, but also a refreshingly different and remarkably accomplished debut. I didn't want it to end, and can imagine re-reading it one day.
I had heard of the Abrolhos Islands, off the WA coast, but that's about it. Now, of course, I want to go there! But in a way I've already been, because Emily Brugman has painted such a detailed and lifelike picture of the archipelago in her story of the Saari family and the (mainly) Finnish community that eked a living from Little Rat island in the latter half of the 20th century. If you look for images online, you'll recognise Little Rat and instantly see the authenticity that imbues the novel.
With characters that you'll grow to love and writing that just sweeps you into this gentle and quiet story and holds you there, The Islands truly is something a bit special.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for an uncorrected proof to read.
March 11, 2023
An interesting and enjoyable family saga based around Finnish migrants, first to the Abrolhos islands off the coast of Western Australia near Geraldton. Onni initially worked in the mines then moved to the islands to take up a crayfish lease after his brothers death. He is joined by his wife Alva and soon they have a daughter Hilda. These are the main characters but the story jumps about through many other viewpoints making it almost like a series of vignettes (including some flashbacks to Finland) and while I found it an enjoyable read filled with quiet observations and emotional responses (the people all feel real), I never felt particularly close to the characters or the ones I did, their complete story wasn’t told or important moments happen off the page. There’s still plenty in the novel I liked, particularly the Finnish customs and sayings throughout.
February 24, 2022
In the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finnish mythology, is contained the story of the sampo – a mill which would bring riches to its holder, forged from the tips of white swan feathers, grains of barley, wool of lambkins. With these elements apparent on the book’s lovely cover, we can see that the sampo is meaningful to this story.
With Finland in recession after the Winter War with Russia, their independence and language at stake, many Finns migrated looking for a better life. Some went to America, or the mines of Mount Isa but Nalle Saari headed to the Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia, hoping to find among its reefs his sampo by crayfishing. Like the folkloric sampo which was lost at sea, Nalle disappears in the treacherous waters and so, in the 1950s, his brother Onni takes over the lease. Joined by his wife Alva at the isolated and harsh Little Rat Island camp it takes grit and tenacity to forge their life in this small community of Finns, but sisu the precious Suomalainen trait will see them make the islands their own. In the off-season they live in Geraldton, strangers in a big, hot, dusty country. When their daughter Hilda is born, she too prefers the island life although her grasp of the Australian way of life outpaces her parents.
Like many country-born Finns of the time, Alva is still superstitious and a little paganistic and nature’s signs (dead birds or unripe fruit falling from the tree) are viewed as harbingers of bad times to come. In an environment where the elements provide a constant battle her traditional rituals will keep them safe. There is a strong communal retention of their heritage and even old sayings. These themes are reinforced by poignant reminisces of family, dances, poverty and war. Or are these migrants looking back, questioning if the decision to move from home was right?
‘The Islands’ is a heartfelt story of a family finding their place and learning that the sampo is elusive, a grail to aspire to. Like cardamom added to pulla the use of Finnish language throughout the dialogue adds perfect flavour to the prose.
Thanks (kiitos) to Allen & Unwin for an advanced reading copy.
With Finland in recession after the Winter War with Russia, their independence and language at stake, many Finns migrated looking for a better life. Some went to America, or the mines of Mount Isa but Nalle Saari headed to the Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia, hoping to find among its reefs his sampo by crayfishing. Like the folkloric sampo which was lost at sea, Nalle disappears in the treacherous waters and so, in the 1950s, his brother Onni takes over the lease. Joined by his wife Alva at the isolated and harsh Little Rat Island camp it takes grit and tenacity to forge their life in this small community of Finns, but sisu the precious Suomalainen trait will see them make the islands their own. In the off-season they live in Geraldton, strangers in a big, hot, dusty country. When their daughter Hilda is born, she too prefers the island life although her grasp of the Australian way of life outpaces her parents.
Like many country-born Finns of the time, Alva is still superstitious and a little paganistic and nature’s signs (dead birds or unripe fruit falling from the tree) are viewed as harbingers of bad times to come. In an environment where the elements provide a constant battle her traditional rituals will keep them safe. There is a strong communal retention of their heritage and even old sayings. These themes are reinforced by poignant reminisces of family, dances, poverty and war. Or are these migrants looking back, questioning if the decision to move from home was right?
‘The Islands’ is a heartfelt story of a family finding their place and learning that the sampo is elusive, a grail to aspire to. Like cardamom added to pulla the use of Finnish language throughout the dialogue adds perfect flavour to the prose.
Thanks (kiitos) to Allen & Unwin for an advanced reading copy.
March 20, 2022
This multi generational saga follows a family who immigrated from Finland to a remote island off the coast of Western Australia in the 1950s. It's not a book where a lot happens, but as we follow this family and their community, we get to know them and experience their struggles. The islands themselves are vividly described, you can smell the salt and see the sparkling blue of the water.
February 16, 2022
Hauntingly atmospheric and written with such a depth of feeling, The Islands was a magnificent read, one that I lingered over and relished from beginning to end.
I am drawn to stories of migration, particularly set in the era that this one was. My grandparents came to Australia in the early 1950s from Belgium, they travelled over with some other friends who had decided along with them on a fresh start. I could relate to so much of this story; I grew up in a bilingual household, the English mixed with Flemish, living one kind of life with my Australian born family and a whole other one with my Belgian family and their community that had grown extensively from the few that had travelled over to Australia together. It is a distinctly unique experience to be a part of a migrant family. You have a foot in each world, a sense at times that you are also neither one nor the other, but a curious new blend of two vastly diverse cultures – even down through the generations. Emily Brugman captured this feeling with such precision, within each of the characters.
The Islands themselves were so vividly brought to life, the history leaping off the page and immersing me into the remote and enclosed world that they all inhabited whilst living there. This is not a part of Australia that I knew very much about, so I was fascinated by the day to day living, the industry, and of course, the haunting history. I just loved how much the islands worked their way into the very psyche of those who lived there, becoming a refuge, a talisman even of a new life and home to hang onto. This was evident in the way they all floundered when on the mainland, as though they had been displaced for a second time.
“Life is a gasp of air in an eternity of not breathing.”
The way this story ended was achingly beautiful. I highly recommend this one. A solid five star read.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
I am drawn to stories of migration, particularly set in the era that this one was. My grandparents came to Australia in the early 1950s from Belgium, they travelled over with some other friends who had decided along with them on a fresh start. I could relate to so much of this story; I grew up in a bilingual household, the English mixed with Flemish, living one kind of life with my Australian born family and a whole other one with my Belgian family and their community that had grown extensively from the few that had travelled over to Australia together. It is a distinctly unique experience to be a part of a migrant family. You have a foot in each world, a sense at times that you are also neither one nor the other, but a curious new blend of two vastly diverse cultures – even down through the generations. Emily Brugman captured this feeling with such precision, within each of the characters.
The Islands themselves were so vividly brought to life, the history leaping off the page and immersing me into the remote and enclosed world that they all inhabited whilst living there. This is not a part of Australia that I knew very much about, so I was fascinated by the day to day living, the industry, and of course, the haunting history. I just loved how much the islands worked their way into the very psyche of those who lived there, becoming a refuge, a talisman even of a new life and home to hang onto. This was evident in the way they all floundered when on the mainland, as though they had been displaced for a second time.
“Life is a gasp of air in an eternity of not breathing.”
The way this story ended was achingly beautiful. I highly recommend this one. A solid five star read.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
February 24, 2022
“A wreck. That was what they called it, when they washed up like that. A wreck of shearwaters. To travel so far, thought Onni, and all for nothing.”
Emily Brugman’s debut, The Islands, is a beautifully told, poignant tale of loss, migration and belonging. Unfolding over several decades, beginning in the late 1950’s, it relates the events in the lives of the Saari family, revealing key moments of adversity and growth, tragedy and joy.
Set largely amongst the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia, Finnish immigrants, Onni Saari and and his wife Alva, join the tiny seasonal cray fishing community on Little Rat Island after Onni’s brother is lost at sea.
Onni works hard to provide for his family, though always wary of meeting the same fate as his brother.
Alva easily takes to life on the island, she enjoys making their small corrugated iron hut a home, helping her husband when needed, and the friendship of the crayfisher’s wives, all of them Finns, but never learns to swim.
To Hilda, Little Rat is home, but when she is five, she and Alva are forced to spend most of each year in Geraldton so that Hilda can attend school. It’s a difficult transition for them both, and when, citing injury, Onni sells the fishing lease in 1975, and moves the family to NSW, their dreams of returning to the Islands are shattered.
Flashbacks reveal the Finnish childhoods of Onni and Alva, marred by war and struggle, desirous of security and prosperity.
Enhanced by snippets of Finnish poems and songs, Brugman shares the unique culture of the Finnish immigrants, drawing on her own family’s background.
The author explores the interconnectedness of the Island community, no one is unaffected by another. She also touches on the xenophobia of mid century Australia, and the awkwardness sometimes experienced by the children caught between cultural expectations.
Brugman weaves the history of the cray fishing industry and the varying landmasses that make up the Abrolhos Islands archipelago, which includes the tragic story of the Batavia shipwreck, artfully into the story.
The prose is lyrical, yet uncomplicated, effortlessly evoking character and landscape.
Descriptions of the Islands and the ocean that surrounds them, both terribly beautiful and terribly dangerous, are entrancing.
Eloquent, meditative and atmospheric, The Islands is a captivating novel.
Emily Brugman’s debut, The Islands, is a beautifully told, poignant tale of loss, migration and belonging. Unfolding over several decades, beginning in the late 1950’s, it relates the events in the lives of the Saari family, revealing key moments of adversity and growth, tragedy and joy.
Set largely amongst the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia, Finnish immigrants, Onni Saari and and his wife Alva, join the tiny seasonal cray fishing community on Little Rat Island after Onni’s brother is lost at sea.
Onni works hard to provide for his family, though always wary of meeting the same fate as his brother.
Alva easily takes to life on the island, she enjoys making their small corrugated iron hut a home, helping her husband when needed, and the friendship of the crayfisher’s wives, all of them Finns, but never learns to swim.
To Hilda, Little Rat is home, but when she is five, she and Alva are forced to spend most of each year in Geraldton so that Hilda can attend school. It’s a difficult transition for them both, and when, citing injury, Onni sells the fishing lease in 1975, and moves the family to NSW, their dreams of returning to the Islands are shattered.
Flashbacks reveal the Finnish childhoods of Onni and Alva, marred by war and struggle, desirous of security and prosperity.
Enhanced by snippets of Finnish poems and songs, Brugman shares the unique culture of the Finnish immigrants, drawing on her own family’s background.
The author explores the interconnectedness of the Island community, no one is unaffected by another. She also touches on the xenophobia of mid century Australia, and the awkwardness sometimes experienced by the children caught between cultural expectations.
Brugman weaves the history of the cray fishing industry and the varying landmasses that make up the Abrolhos Islands archipelago, which includes the tragic story of the Batavia shipwreck, artfully into the story.
The prose is lyrical, yet uncomplicated, effortlessly evoking character and landscape.
Descriptions of the Islands and the ocean that surrounds them, both terribly beautiful and terribly dangerous, are entrancing.
Eloquent, meditative and atmospheric, The Islands is a captivating novel.
February 2, 2022
Thank you Allen & Unwin for sending us a copy to read and review.
People migrate for many reasons and the lure of our great land is very enticing.
Finding a home away from home is a massive emotional and physical undertaking but worth it, if the level of happiness is achieved.
The Saari family from Finland have joined a few of their compatriots in Australia and have selected the far north coast of WA to settle.
The lure of crayfish, sunshine and a new beginning.
Escaping hard times, bad weather and the past.
Set over many decades the family evolve, move and place solid roots in the new homeland.
A head strong daughter who crosses into both her Australian and Finnish heritage cements the family and the expat community providing the core support structure. Life on the ocean is dangerous and very unpredictable.
A story of journey, that is uplifting and insightful.
How fascinating to learn of the Finnish community and their migrations.
Authenticity was punctuated through Finnish poem, song and phrases.
A language I’m not at all familiar with.
A family saga that reflected the real struggles and the simple joys.
People migrate for many reasons and the lure of our great land is very enticing.
Finding a home away from home is a massive emotional and physical undertaking but worth it, if the level of happiness is achieved.
The Saari family from Finland have joined a few of their compatriots in Australia and have selected the far north coast of WA to settle.
The lure of crayfish, sunshine and a new beginning.
Escaping hard times, bad weather and the past.
Set over many decades the family evolve, move and place solid roots in the new homeland.
A head strong daughter who crosses into both her Australian and Finnish heritage cements the family and the expat community providing the core support structure. Life on the ocean is dangerous and very unpredictable.
A story of journey, that is uplifting and insightful.
How fascinating to learn of the Finnish community and their migrations.
Authenticity was punctuated through Finnish poem, song and phrases.
A language I’m not at all familiar with.
A family saga that reflected the real struggles and the simple joys.
March 8, 2023
This book gives an insight into the harsh life of fishermen and of those who cross many oceans and seas seeking a better life and one of opportunity without any thought or concern as to how they will adapt to a new way of life, new language and how they will be accepted. Included are songs, folklore, superstitions and poetry of lives in Finland and this adds real colour and warmth for the reader, although the Finnish words are a bit of a minefield for pronunciation.
Onni Saari and wife Alva have immigrated from a country at the top of the world Finland, to the country at the bottom of the world, Australia. Stark in contrast to the environment, the new life that was initially brought about by a traveller regaling his Australian experiences that encouraged Naale, Onni's brother in the first instance to make the move with Onni and wife Alva following.
Onni is working at the mines but on getting the news of his brother's disappearance at sea, now presumed dead through drowning, he pushes the last sticks of dynamite into the holes and makes arrangements to travel to the islands where his brother has been crayfishing and to search for him.
This era of crayfishing is without restrictions and is really like the wild west of the seas. Crayfish are bountiful and huge. The fishermen practice their own rules of not taking juveniles or females. A good living can be made but life on these small crushed coral islands is harsh, nothing will grow except for salt bush and succulents, fresh water and supplies have to be brought in. They are the islands of the Houtman Abrolhos chain consisting of 122 islands and coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. The islands that are the subject of this book are Rat and Little Rat which forms the main area where the tin huts are built.
It's a pretty tight community and Alva surprises herself with her ease at adapting to this very different environment, considering that she is an unobtrusive person by nature. She becomes pregnant; with baby due she is taken to the mainland. This is her first real encounter with "Australian English" speaking people for which she has no understanding other than she notes that she is spoken to slowly as they would a child or the elderly. A little girl is born, Hilda and as soon as is possible the two are back on the island.
Family life continues, Hilda grows up but as someone straddling two cultures there is turmoil in her life. Onni sells off his licence, age is beginning to show but sadly for him his opportunity to make a real fortune is missed as the crayfish licences soon become extremely valuable with the increase in opportunities due to Asian appetites and trade. He has to accept that he missed his opportunity and the small amount of envy at the opportunities for the boys Hilda grew up with and their fabulous trawlers have to be overcome, to be contented with his own achievements and to enjoy fishing with his little granddaughter, Riita who like her grandfather is drawn to the sea.
Onni Saari and wife Alva have immigrated from a country at the top of the world Finland, to the country at the bottom of the world, Australia. Stark in contrast to the environment, the new life that was initially brought about by a traveller regaling his Australian experiences that encouraged Naale, Onni's brother in the first instance to make the move with Onni and wife Alva following.
Onni is working at the mines but on getting the news of his brother's disappearance at sea, now presumed dead through drowning, he pushes the last sticks of dynamite into the holes and makes arrangements to travel to the islands where his brother has been crayfishing and to search for him.
This era of crayfishing is without restrictions and is really like the wild west of the seas. Crayfish are bountiful and huge. The fishermen practice their own rules of not taking juveniles or females. A good living can be made but life on these small crushed coral islands is harsh, nothing will grow except for salt bush and succulents, fresh water and supplies have to be brought in. They are the islands of the Houtman Abrolhos chain consisting of 122 islands and coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. The islands that are the subject of this book are Rat and Little Rat which forms the main area where the tin huts are built.
It's a pretty tight community and Alva surprises herself with her ease at adapting to this very different environment, considering that she is an unobtrusive person by nature. She becomes pregnant; with baby due she is taken to the mainland. This is her first real encounter with "Australian English" speaking people for which she has no understanding other than she notes that she is spoken to slowly as they would a child or the elderly. A little girl is born, Hilda and as soon as is possible the two are back on the island.
Family life continues, Hilda grows up but as someone straddling two cultures there is turmoil in her life. Onni sells off his licence, age is beginning to show but sadly for him his opportunity to make a real fortune is missed as the crayfish licences soon become extremely valuable with the increase in opportunities due to Asian appetites and trade. He has to accept that he missed his opportunity and the small amount of envy at the opportunities for the boys Hilda grew up with and their fabulous trawlers have to be overcome, to be contented with his own achievements and to enjoy fishing with his little granddaughter, Riita who like her grandfather is drawn to the sea.
February 11, 2022
Emily Brugman delivers a lovely generational tale - almost a collection of short vignettes - centred mostly around Onni, Alva and Hilda in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia near Geraldton in the 1960s. She intertwines the Finnish ancestry of these main characters into the stories of their Australian lives, living in their tin huts under the hot burning sun.
Its saga-like feel was reminiscent of Jane Smiley's 'The Greenlanders'; a folkloric reality of true to life moments, places and time. The stories and tales are of ordinary life, life and loss, birth and death, regrets, fights and friendships. They want for nothing, and find happiness in the smallest pleasures. All of this backlit by the Finnish culture of these characters who migrated to Australia to keep a small crayfishing industry alive. We are introduced to their food, their poems and songs and their disconnection from the Australian community in Geraldton. They were so weary of anyone who was different. the 1960s, so many struggles in their migrant lives and moments where they felt that they did not belong, and felt as if they would never fit in.
Brugman has a lot of compassion for this community and is very careful to demonstrate their strengths as much as the moments where they feel lost and alone. Such sweetness and light in this book.
What was the last book that made you reflect on the things that matter most?
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the gifted copy.
Its saga-like feel was reminiscent of Jane Smiley's 'The Greenlanders'; a folkloric reality of true to life moments, places and time. The stories and tales are of ordinary life, life and loss, birth and death, regrets, fights and friendships. They want for nothing, and find happiness in the smallest pleasures. All of this backlit by the Finnish culture of these characters who migrated to Australia to keep a small crayfishing industry alive. We are introduced to their food, their poems and songs and their disconnection from the Australian community in Geraldton. They were so weary of anyone who was different. the 1960s, so many struggles in their migrant lives and moments where they felt that they did not belong, and felt as if they would never fit in.
Brugman has a lot of compassion for this community and is very careful to demonstrate their strengths as much as the moments where they feel lost and alone. Such sweetness and light in this book.
What was the last book that made you reflect on the things that matter most?
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the gifted copy.
February 7, 2022
If you are a lover of a sweeping family saga told over several generations, then I think you should consider picking up a copy of newly released historical fiction The Islands. This is the debut novel by Australian writer Emily Brugman and is inspired by her Finnish family.
Starting in the 1950’s the story begins on a tiny island known as Little Rat which is part of the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. A group of Finnish immigrants has set up in rustic isolated camps to hunt for crayfish. This is where we meet Onni Saari and his wife Alvi and where their story of finding their place in Australia begins.
The story drifts between the current day and their life on Little Rat amongst the Finnish community and flashback to their past lives in Finland. It then moves forward over time with their daughter Hilda being born and then growing and the family eventually moving away to the South Coast of NSW. Hilda gives birth to a daughter and then Omni and Alvi grow older. It was such a joy watching this small family as their lives ebb and flow from the 1950s through to roughly the 1990s.
I found the writing to be beautiful, warm and captivating. The descriptions of the landscape were particularly wonderful especially on the islands where the natural elements were just so vivid. The other really engaging aspect of the novel was the layers of Finnish culture that the author brought to so much of the novel. From the stories of Onni and Alvi’s lives back in Finland, to the traditions they bring to Australia like Midsummer and to the use of Finnish language in much of the dialogue - what rich characterisation!
My only wish was that I got more. The chapters jumped forward a number of years at a time and focussed on one character before moving forward again and shifting to another. This meant that it felt like something was missing and I wished I got more from the characters at each time period.
Overall this is an original and wonderfully drawn story of family and the search for a place to call home. Congratulations on your debut novel @embrugman!
Thanks so much to @allenandunwin for my #gifted copy.
Starting in the 1950’s the story begins on a tiny island known as Little Rat which is part of the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. A group of Finnish immigrants has set up in rustic isolated camps to hunt for crayfish. This is where we meet Onni Saari and his wife Alvi and where their story of finding their place in Australia begins.
The story drifts between the current day and their life on Little Rat amongst the Finnish community and flashback to their past lives in Finland. It then moves forward over time with their daughter Hilda being born and then growing and the family eventually moving away to the South Coast of NSW. Hilda gives birth to a daughter and then Omni and Alvi grow older. It was such a joy watching this small family as their lives ebb and flow from the 1950s through to roughly the 1990s.
I found the writing to be beautiful, warm and captivating. The descriptions of the landscape were particularly wonderful especially on the islands where the natural elements were just so vivid. The other really engaging aspect of the novel was the layers of Finnish culture that the author brought to so much of the novel. From the stories of Onni and Alvi’s lives back in Finland, to the traditions they bring to Australia like Midsummer and to the use of Finnish language in much of the dialogue - what rich characterisation!
My only wish was that I got more. The chapters jumped forward a number of years at a time and focussed on one character before moving forward again and shifting to another. This meant that it felt like something was missing and I wished I got more from the characters at each time period.
Overall this is an original and wonderfully drawn story of family and the search for a place to call home. Congratulations on your debut novel @embrugman!
Thanks so much to @allenandunwin for my #gifted copy.
March 8, 2022
What I found intriguing about this book is the nuanced portrayal of the importance of home against the importance of place. Where we feel at home is often different to where we find ourselves living. And this is particularly true when you adopt a new country.
Brugman deftly revives her own family history of emigrant Finns that, on arriving in Australia, carve out a living from the sea around the sparse, barely-there, crayfish rich Abrohlos Islands west of Geraldton in Western Australia.
The book begins with the place (Abrohlos) as a new home, a new community: workers of the sea, but the new home is referenced against the old home (Finland) at least in this initial generation - the Founders - let's say. The contrast between old and new is stark. The old world finds its way into the niches of life; the saunas, the customs, the recipes (always the food), the idle knick-knacks from the old country on a shelf, the vodka, the blood.
Ultimately this book is about the inevitable, subtle erosion and reconstitution of the old world into the new, like coral colonizing a sea-mount so too, over generations, something is built that supplants the old, but never completely. Whether this new home is an improvement on the old, I suspect, is qualified by the perspective of which generation you belong to in the lineage.
The Islands is a thoughtful investigation into the tattoos of ethnicity, the delights of place, but mostly, the truth of home.
Finally, this book clearly warrants another. Emily Brugman is a writer with abundant potential given such an accomplished start here. 4 Stars for this book and 1 Star for the publisher as encouragement to go again!
Brugman deftly revives her own family history of emigrant Finns that, on arriving in Australia, carve out a living from the sea around the sparse, barely-there, crayfish rich Abrohlos Islands west of Geraldton in Western Australia.
The book begins with the place (Abrohlos) as a new home, a new community: workers of the sea, but the new home is referenced against the old home (Finland) at least in this initial generation - the Founders - let's say. The contrast between old and new is stark. The old world finds its way into the niches of life; the saunas, the customs, the recipes (always the food), the idle knick-knacks from the old country on a shelf, the vodka, the blood.
Ultimately this book is about the inevitable, subtle erosion and reconstitution of the old world into the new, like coral colonizing a sea-mount so too, over generations, something is built that supplants the old, but never completely. Whether this new home is an improvement on the old, I suspect, is qualified by the perspective of which generation you belong to in the lineage.
A Metaphor: There is a Swedish molecular biologist named Jonas Frisén whose research over several decades asserts that the entire human body replaces itself, every cell, over a seven to ten year period. You are totally reborn in a sense.
If that is so, then why don't tattoos disappear?
The Islands is a thoughtful investigation into the tattoos of ethnicity, the delights of place, but mostly, the truth of home.
Finally, this book clearly warrants another. Emily Brugman is a writer with abundant potential given such an accomplished start here. 4 Stars for this book and 1 Star for the publisher as encouragement to go again!
June 29, 2022
3.5 stars. A gentle fascinating story that tracks a number of Finnish migrants that arrived in Australia in the 1950’s. They carved out a simple life crayfishing in the remote Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. This story contemplates the link between memory, people and place. What impact or evidence is left when we leave? The audio is a lovely way to absorb this book as it includes Finnish language and song.
I grew up in Western Australia but was not aware of the Finnish connection with the Abrolhos Islands. The vignettes of life in this harsh environment create a picture of people that built a strong connection with the land and water.
I grew up in Western Australia but was not aware of the Finnish connection with the Abrolhos Islands. The vignettes of life in this harsh environment create a picture of people that built a strong connection with the land and water.
February 6, 2022
http://jessjustreads.com
Emily Brugman’s debut novel The Islands is a multi-generational literary tale that documents Finnish migration to the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia.
Although this is a fictional tale, it is heavily influenced by the stories of Emily’s ancestors from 1959 - 1972, as well as extensive research into these islands and cray fishermen from the mid-20th century. The Islands is set across many decades and moves back and forth between different members of the family. Over the course of the novel, we observe each character during pivotal moments in their lives.
“A year for the Saaris was now lived in two parts: on-season and off-season. Their first season on Little Rat had been a moderate success, from an economic standpoint, and the couple looked ahead with a suspicious and careful optimism characteristic of their people.”
At its core, The Islands is about the pursuit of a sustainable and secure life. But it’s also about resilience — both physical and emotional — and perseverance. We witness what that can encapsulate whether you’re 40, 60 or 14. In this isolated and secluded setting, we meet women experiencing loneliness, experiencing childbirth for the first time. We read as their children then mature into teenagers within this barren but plentiful landscape — we follow them as they discover impulses and sexual desire. We come across men working to earn for their families, having arrived with the hope of a land that provides.
“They carried him to camp and laid him down on his side, covering him with a blanket. Hilda stood watching from a corner. Helvi was crying and so was Aiti, although she was trying not to. Hilda wanted to cry too, but she didn’t think that would be right after what she’d done. So she just stood there. And Lauri didn’t move.”
Scattered throughout the novel are Finnish verses, then translated into English. By embedding Finnish language into the novel, readers are further immersed in culture, community and these characters’ historical journey.
There is a strong sense of song and music throughout the book, and the Finnish verses also allow the characters to have a stronger connection to their heritage because it feels like knowledge is being passed between generations.
“Towards the close of his first season, Onni woke to find Little Rat covered in dead shearwaters, their dishevelled bodies in oily black heaps on the coral ground. Those shaggy mutton birds, as the Aussies called them. They flew thousands of miles every year, across open ocean, through torrents of rain and wind. They didn’t always make it, and every so often they’d wash up on shorelines in their hundreds. A wreck. That was what they called it, when they washed up like that.”
Evocative and emotional, Emily Brugman’s The Islands is recommended for literary readers, and fans of grand familial sagas steeped in wild, forbidding settings like a Hannah Kent novel. Readership skews female, 30+
Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Emily Brugman’s debut novel The Islands is a multi-generational literary tale that documents Finnish migration to the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia.
Although this is a fictional tale, it is heavily influenced by the stories of Emily’s ancestors from 1959 - 1972, as well as extensive research into these islands and cray fishermen from the mid-20th century. The Islands is set across many decades and moves back and forth between different members of the family. Over the course of the novel, we observe each character during pivotal moments in their lives.
“A year for the Saaris was now lived in two parts: on-season and off-season. Their first season on Little Rat had been a moderate success, from an economic standpoint, and the couple looked ahead with a suspicious and careful optimism characteristic of their people.”
At its core, The Islands is about the pursuit of a sustainable and secure life. But it’s also about resilience — both physical and emotional — and perseverance. We witness what that can encapsulate whether you’re 40, 60 or 14. In this isolated and secluded setting, we meet women experiencing loneliness, experiencing childbirth for the first time. We read as their children then mature into teenagers within this barren but plentiful landscape — we follow them as they discover impulses and sexual desire. We come across men working to earn for their families, having arrived with the hope of a land that provides.
“They carried him to camp and laid him down on his side, covering him with a blanket. Hilda stood watching from a corner. Helvi was crying and so was Aiti, although she was trying not to. Hilda wanted to cry too, but she didn’t think that would be right after what she’d done. So she just stood there. And Lauri didn’t move.”
Scattered throughout the novel are Finnish verses, then translated into English. By embedding Finnish language into the novel, readers are further immersed in culture, community and these characters’ historical journey.
There is a strong sense of song and music throughout the book, and the Finnish verses also allow the characters to have a stronger connection to their heritage because it feels like knowledge is being passed between generations.
“Towards the close of his first season, Onni woke to find Little Rat covered in dead shearwaters, their dishevelled bodies in oily black heaps on the coral ground. Those shaggy mutton birds, as the Aussies called them. They flew thousands of miles every year, across open ocean, through torrents of rain and wind. They didn’t always make it, and every so often they’d wash up on shorelines in their hundreds. A wreck. That was what they called it, when they washed up like that.”
Evocative and emotional, Emily Brugman’s The Islands is recommended for literary readers, and fans of grand familial sagas steeped in wild, forbidding settings like a Hannah Kent novel. Readership skews female, 30+
Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 8, 2022
I loved the idea of this book - a courageous group of Finnish people establishing cray fishing in the 1950s at the Abhoulus Islands on the shipwreck coast west of Geraldton, Western Australia. This coral coastline has a sparse beauty of its own and is a short small plane trip from the mainland. Arrival by air is quite spectacular over the coral reefs, which were perilous to ships in the centuries prior to the navigation tools now available. The Abrolhos are also explored by Judy Nunn in Sanctuary about refugees landing on a fictional island in the group which also highlights the spareness of the environment.
The geography of the islands and the toughness of the early years of cray fishing before it became so profitable are well captured. The season was less than half the year so for the off season people returned from their temporary basic accommodation to the mainland. Once children were school age, the women and children were only there in school holidays.
Not being so familiar with Finnish culture I was not sure if the lack of character development was a trait consistent with not giving too much away. There were patches of insight into the protagonists but they were insufficient to feel connected in a meaningful way for most of the book. There were jumps in time frame without explanation of what happened from the end of one chapter to the next phase.
The challenges of being a migrant adolescent of parents not familiar with the local culture was well explored. The author comes from the south coast of NSW on the other side of the Australian mainland and it seemed she was more comfortable with her characters in that setting. Given this is a first published work, it will be interesting to await further manuscripts.
The geography of the islands and the toughness of the early years of cray fishing before it became so profitable are well captured. The season was less than half the year so for the off season people returned from their temporary basic accommodation to the mainland. Once children were school age, the women and children were only there in school holidays.
Not being so familiar with Finnish culture I was not sure if the lack of character development was a trait consistent with not giving too much away. There were patches of insight into the protagonists but they were insufficient to feel connected in a meaningful way for most of the book. There were jumps in time frame without explanation of what happened from the end of one chapter to the next phase.
The challenges of being a migrant adolescent of parents not familiar with the local culture was well explored. The author comes from the south coast of NSW on the other side of the Australian mainland and it seemed she was more comfortable with her characters in that setting. Given this is a first published work, it will be interesting to await further manuscripts.
February 18, 2024
3.5 This is a first time author who clearly has talent but I feel was let down by the editor. While the small stories contained within are wonderfully written and engaging as short stories, the overall narrative doesn't quite come together as a single narrative.
Characters come and go, jumping large gaps in time and it is difficult to feel connected to them. There are also a couple of moments based on traditions that were told instead of shown, which again disconnected you from the mood.
I would definitely read more work from this author, as the writing is well done. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite land for me which was a shame as the seeds of a great epic tale were there.
Characters come and go, jumping large gaps in time and it is difficult to feel connected to them. There are also a couple of moments based on traditions that were told instead of shown, which again disconnected you from the mood.
I would definitely read more work from this author, as the writing is well done. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite land for me which was a shame as the seeds of a great epic tale were there.
October 10, 2022
Mixed feelings. I loved the first half of this book, the wild rugged landscape of coastal WA, home to new immigrants who made it their own. The second part felt like a different story, an abrupt change in pace, life and relationships.
March 28, 2022
“Alva had spent her life looking back, wondering whether each decision to move on had been the right one. Didn’t all migrants feel like this, at least a little? Once untethered from your mooring, you somehow always remained adrift”
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This quiet, contemplative novel has been a sort of balm this week
Set predominantly on the Abrolhos Islands off the Western Coast of Australia, The Islands is the story of three generations of a Finnish migrant family. Omni and Alva arrive in the 1950’s and join the small crayfishing community of Little Rat island. Their daughter Hilda is born there before the family again becomes untethered, moving across the country to following the building boom. In the East of the country, life seems to unravel a little as Hilda becomes pregnant and her own daughter, Riitta, is born
Like beads on a string making a necklace, the narrative is formed by a series of stories about the members of the Saari family. It’s only when you reach the end that you can step back and see the fully-formed narrative and it’s themes. There’s a very strong sense of place and I found myself incessantly googling the Abrolhos Islands. I’ve put a link to a beautiful YouTube video in my stories so you can see them for yourselves. They’re a place where the sky meets the sea and the coral teems with life
I loved this understated novel which reminded me a little of the Finnish characters it depicted; quiet, poetic, accepting of the vagaries of life with a deep affinity for the natural world. Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy
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.
.
This quiet, contemplative novel has been a sort of balm this week
Set predominantly on the Abrolhos Islands off the Western Coast of Australia, The Islands is the story of three generations of a Finnish migrant family. Omni and Alva arrive in the 1950’s and join the small crayfishing community of Little Rat island. Their daughter Hilda is born there before the family again becomes untethered, moving across the country to following the building boom. In the East of the country, life seems to unravel a little as Hilda becomes pregnant and her own daughter, Riitta, is born
Like beads on a string making a necklace, the narrative is formed by a series of stories about the members of the Saari family. It’s only when you reach the end that you can step back and see the fully-formed narrative and it’s themes. There’s a very strong sense of place and I found myself incessantly googling the Abrolhos Islands. I’ve put a link to a beautiful YouTube video in my stories so you can see them for yourselves. They’re a place where the sky meets the sea and the coral teems with life
I loved this understated novel which reminded me a little of the Finnish characters it depicted; quiet, poetic, accepting of the vagaries of life with a deep affinity for the natural world. Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy
March 7, 2022
Debut novelist Emily Brugman has knocked it out of the park with this Novel-in-Stories format about Finnish immigrants who settle on the Abrohlos Islands in the late 1950s just as the crayfishing industry was taking off.
The joy of this book is its Scandi Noir feel mixed with the salt, coral and wind that characterises the Geraldton coast off WA. You'll feel like jumping into salt water and swimming with the fishes.
This novel peers into the lives of Onni and Alva, their Australian-born daughter Hilda and the other Finns who melded the folklore and stories of their past with the new stories they were making in a far away, and very different land.
The writing is exquisite. The characters see the world through their own cultural lens. A world in which birds are omens and skies can be described in terms of their likeness to a particular fish.
This is a character-driven story so don't expect much of a plot. It is simply a story of trying to find home wherever you are.
The joy of this book is its Scandi Noir feel mixed with the salt, coral and wind that characterises the Geraldton coast off WA. You'll feel like jumping into salt water and swimming with the fishes.
This novel peers into the lives of Onni and Alva, their Australian-born daughter Hilda and the other Finns who melded the folklore and stories of their past with the new stories they were making in a far away, and very different land.
The writing is exquisite. The characters see the world through their own cultural lens. A world in which birds are omens and skies can be described in terms of their likeness to a particular fish.
This is a character-driven story so don't expect much of a plot. It is simply a story of trying to find home wherever you are.
July 6, 2022
What an interesting book! The setting makes it unique. It’s set in WA , Fremantle, a little on the east coat, but mainly on some islands off the coast known as Albrohos, in particular the island known as Little Rat. The subject matter, Finnish migration to Australia from the 1950s, is what makes it so unusual. The author writes it as fiction but she’s researched her own family time on the island, plus the stories of women who lived through this experience. The story follows one family, Alva and Onnie Saari, through several generations. Much attention rests on island life, living conditions, work and social life. Finnish culture is a big focus, and Finnish language is sprinkled throughout the text, with subtle translations.
I enjoyed it a lot although I found it a bit long. The author’s structure of changing viewpoints, times etc suffers a bit over such a lengthy development of the story. Well worth reading, you’ll find out a lot about this little known group. Migration involves such drama, heartache, hopes, on the whole it makes very engaging reading.
I enjoyed it a lot although I found it a bit long. The author’s structure of changing viewpoints, times etc suffers a bit over such a lengthy development of the story. Well worth reading, you’ll find out a lot about this little known group. Migration involves such drama, heartache, hopes, on the whole it makes very engaging reading.
September 8, 2022
I’m drawn to stories set on islands, something about that sense of containment, secrecy and escape. I’ve also been fascinated by the Houtman Abrolhos islands since reading Peter Fitzsimon’s Batavia while travelling along the coast of Western Australia so I was interested to read this book. Actually I listened to it which turned out to be a good choice because the narrator supplied the Finnish accent, language and singing of folk songs. Essentially the story is about a Finnish immigrant family crayfishing off Little Rat, one of the Abrolhos islands, and perhaps what constitutes a sense of home. It’s a gentle story in that there’s not a lot going on, there’s daughter Hilda’s uncomfortable teen years in the 1970s and then time skips by. Did Onni and Alva have a good life? There’s a bit of regret there but there’s a circle of life quality and some beautiful writing that held the story together.
November 6, 2023
I found this book absorbing. The depiction of Finnish culture and the immigrant experience, the crayfishing on the islands and the beautifully rendered characters all made for interesting and thought provoking reading. This pondering about life and it’s transience is gently done, while recognising the things that are important to us. As someone who enjoys boat fishing, this book spoke to me in its love and understanding of the sea. I would have liked more about the three main characters, but perhaps that means it was a good book, when you want more.
January 9, 2023
Three generations of the Saari family, a Finnish migrant family make up the main characters in this book. The original family members travel from Finland to Australia in the mid-1950s, where they settle down as a crayfish fisher family. Their life is fragmented Little Rat Island, a remote island off Western Australia where the crayfish fishery they work is located and in the off season they are based in Geraldton. However, the whole book is set in this geographic location.
Listened as audiobook. Finnish accents and language helps embed these characters.
Whilst the location is described and understood, this is a character led story and the landscape (which I'm sure would be stunning) creates context but is not a character it its own right.
Listened as audiobook. Finnish accents and language helps embed these characters.
Whilst the location is described and understood, this is a character led story and the landscape (which I'm sure would be stunning) creates context but is not a character it its own right.
February 25, 2022
The star of this novel is the Australian landscape and ocean. It sets such a beautiful backdrop to this family story of early Finnish settlers who are cray fisherman on islands off Western Australia. A hard life awaits these families searching for better than their homeland gave them. Great characters await the reader if a very enjoyable story.
March 29, 2022
A great family saga set in WA and the early crayfish industry, giving a glimpse into the harsh conditions and joys of the life.
A good audiobook read.
A good audiobook read.
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