Islands in the Stream

Every once in a while, I mention that I’m reading about islands again. For some reason, I have always drifted toward books set on islands or in other remote locations. So, I thought I’d do an extra post for fun, listing all of the books set on islands that I’ve reviewed since I started the blog. I’m not going to count New York City or the main lands of the British Isles, because there would be too many (or any Game of Thrones books, set on mythical Great Britain), or Australia, since it is a continent. I hope I don’t forget any of them.

Asia

• The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell (Singapore)
• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (Japan)
• The Sapphire Widow by Dinah Jeffries (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka)
• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (Japan)
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Japan)
• Number9Dream by David Mitchell (Japan)
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Nijema, Japan)
• The Distance Between Us by Maggie O’Farrell (Hong Kong)
• Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada (Japan)

British Isles

• Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• Dead Water by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• The Seagull by Ann Cleeves (St. Mary’s Island, England)
• Thin Air by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland Islands, Scotland)
• King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett (Orkney Islands, Scotland)
• The Sea House by Elizabeth Gifford (Isle of Lewis, Scotland)
• The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat (Channel Islands)
• The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine (Outer Hebrides, Scotland)
• The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola (Isle of Skye, Scotland)
• The Winter Isles by Antonia Senior (Islands of West Scotland)
• Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart (Isle of Skye, Scotland)
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (Isle of Skye, Scotland)

Caribbean and South America

• In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic, Hispaniola)
• Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend (Galapagos Islands)
• A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie (St. Honoré)
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel De Foe (island somewhere off South America)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic, Hispaniola Island)
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Barbados)
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Jamaica)
• Sugar Money by Jane Harris (Martinique and Grenada)
• The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Jamaica)
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (a fictional island probably in the British Virgin Islands)

Mediterranean

• Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper (Crete, Greece)
• Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin (Venice, Italy)
• The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett (Malta)
• Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell (Corfu, Greece)
• The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (Corfu, Greece)
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (Corfu, Greece)
• Siracusa by Delia Ephron (Sicily, Italy)
• Imperium by Robert Harris (Sicily)
• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (Venice, Italy)
• The Information Officer by Mark Mills (Malta)
• An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obiama (Cyprus, Greece)
• The Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (Venice, Italy)
• This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart (Corfu, Greece)
• All That Man Is by David Szalay (Cyprus, Greece)

North America

• The Luminous Sea by Melissa Barbeau (Newfoundland, Canada)
• Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts)
• Greenwood by Michael Christie (fictional Greenwood Island)
• Galore by Michael Crummey (Newfoundland, Canada)
• River Thieves by Michael Crummey (Newfoundland, Canada)
• Sweetland by Michael Crummey (Newfoundland, Canada)
• The Loon Feather by Iola Fuller (Mackinac Island, Michigan)
• Simon the Fiddler by Pauline Jiles (Galveston Island, Texas)
• The Miracle on Monhegan Island by Elizabeth Kelly (Monhegan Island, Maine)
• Anne of Avonlea by L. L. Montgomery (Prince Edward Island, Canada)
• Anne of Green Gables by L. L. Montgomery (Prince Edward Island, Canada)
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (an island in British Columbia, Canada)
• Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 by Nathaniel Philbrick (Nantucket Island, Massachusetts)
• Chances Are by Richard Russo (Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts)
• The Night Stages by Jane Urquhart (Newfoundland, Canada)
• The Promise by Ann Weisgarber (Galveston Island, Texas)

Oceania

• Moloka’i by Alan Brennert (Moloka’i, Hawaii)
• And the Sea Will Tell by Vince Bugliosi (Palmyra Island and Hawaii)
• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand)
• The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand)
• Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame (New Zealand)
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (Tahiti)
• The Survivors by Jane Harper (Tasmania, Australia)
• Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan (Samoa)
• The Bone People by Keri Hulme (North Island, New Zealand)
• Euphoria by Lily King (New Guinea)
• The Sun Is God by Adrian McKinty (New Guinea)
• Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (Tahiti)
• Pitcairn’s Island by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (Pitcairn’s Island)

Scandinavia

• And Then You Die by Michael Dibdin (Iceland)
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Vardó Island, Norway)
• Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason (Iceland)
• We, the Drowned by Carston Jensen (Ærø, Denmark)
• The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson (Iceland)
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Iceland)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (a private island off Sweden)
• The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness (Iceland)
• Iceland’s Bell by by Halldór Laxness (Iceland)
• Independent People by Halldór Laxness (Iceland)
• World Light by Halldór Laxness (Iceland)
• The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea (Iceland)
• Smile of the Wolf by Tim Leach (Iceland)
• The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson (Iceland)
• Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir (Iceland)
• The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley (Greenland)
• The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley (Iceland)
• The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin (Öland Island, Sweden)
• Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin (Öland Island, Sweden)
• The Quarry by Johan Theorin (Öland Island, Sweden)
• The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin (Öland Island, Sweden)

And in the upcoming months, expect reviews of more island-set novels, such as The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart (set in Crete), Red Island House by Andrea Lee (set in Madagascar), and The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (set in a Norwegian archipelago).

Do you like books set on islands, or am I just weird? Which of these have you read?