# The Islanders by Christopher Priest



## Werthead (Sep 28, 2011)

The  Dream Archipelago is a vast string of thousands of islands,  wrapping themselves around the world between two great continents. Some  of them are deserts, some are home to great cities and others have been  riddled with tunnels and turned into gigantic musical instruments. _The Islanders_ is a gazetteer to the islands...and a murder story. It's also a musing on the nature of art and the artists who make it.

_The Islanders_ is Christopher  Priest's first novel in almost a decade, a fact which itself makes it  one of the most interesting books to be released this year. His previous  novel, _The Separation_, a  stimulating and layered book about alternate versions of WWII, was one  of the very finest novels of the 2000s. True to expectations, Priest has  returned with a fiercely intelligent book that works on multiple  different levels and which rewards close, thoughtful reading.

_The Islanders_ initially appears to be a travel gazetteer, a _Lonely Planet_  guide to a place that doesn't exist. Several islands are presented with  geographic information, notes on places of interest and thoughts on  locations to visit. Then we get entries which are short stories  (sometimes only tangentially involving the island the entry is named  after), or exchanges of correspondence between people on different  islands. One entry is a succession of court and police documents  revolving around a murder, followed by an extract from a  much-later-published book that exonerates the murderer. Later entries in  the book seem to clarify what really happened in this case, but in the  process open up more questions than are answered. Oh, a key figure the  gazetteer references frequently is revealed to be dead, despite him  having produced an introduction to the book (apparently after reading  it). Maybe he faked his death. Or this is a newer edition with the old  introduction left intact. Or something else has happened.

_The Islanders_ defies easy  categorisation. It's not a novel in the traditional sense but it has an  over-arcing storyline. It isn't a collection of short stories either,  though it does contain several distinct and self-contained narratives.  It isn't a companion or guidebook, though readers of Priest's earlier  novel _The Affirmation_ or short story collection _The Dream Archipelago_  will find rewards in using it as such. It is hugely metafictional in  that themes, tropes and ideas that Priest has been working on for years  recur and are explored: doppelgangers, twins, conflicted memories,  magicians, performance art and shifting realities feature and are  referenced. At several points Priest seems to be commenting about his  own works rather than the imaginary ones written by a  protagonist...until one of those books turns out to be called _The Affirmation_,  the same title as one of Priest's earlier, best novels. A character's  suggestion that a work be split into four sections and then experienced  in reverse order may be a clue as to how the novel should be read...but  may be a red herring. Several key moments of wry humour (_The Islanders_  is probably Priest's funniest book) suggest that we shouldn't be taking  the endeavour seriously. Moments of dark, psychological horror suggest  we should.

The novel embraces its gazetteer format. References to another island in  an entry may be a clue that a vital piece of information can be found  in the corresponding chapter about the other island. Sometimes this is  the case, sometimes it isn't. Recurring names (some of them possibly  aliases) and references to tunnels and havens provide links that bind  the book together. The strangest chapter appears to be divorced from the  rest of the book altogether, but subtle clues suggest curious  relationships with the rest of the book and indeed with other of  Priest's works (though foreknowledge of these is not required). The  interlinking tapestry of references, names and events forms a puzzle  that the reader is invited to try to piece together, except that the  pieces don't always fit together and indeed, some appear to be missing  altogether.

_The Islanders_ (*****)  is a weird book. It's also funny, warm and smart. It's also cold,  alienating and dark. It's certainly self-contradictory. The only thing I  can say with certainty about it is that it is about islands and the  people who live on them, and if there is a better, more  thought-provoking and rewarding novel published this year I will be  surprised. The book is available now in the UK and on import in the USA.


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