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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'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.'
Source : publisher's blurb
Notes
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Author's note: For Mummu and Pappa (Maila and Auno 'Herman' Talviharju) and the Finns of Little Rat.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Dyslexic edition.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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The Islands by Emily Brugman Review – An Evocative Escape to Australia’s Abrolhos Islands
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 February 2022;
— Review of The Islands 2022 single work novel'Set among a community of Finnish fishers in a little-known part of the country, Brugman’s debut is a sensuous blend of social history and imaginative fiction'
-
The Islands by Emily Brugman Review – An Evocative Escape to Australia’s Abrolhos Islands
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 February 2022;
— Review of The Islands 2022 single work novel'Set among a community of Finnish fishers in a little-known part of the country, Brugman’s debut is a sensuous blend of social history and imaginative fiction'
Awards
- 2023 shortlisted MUD Literary Prize
- 2023 longlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction
- Western Australia,
- 1955