Island - Hardcover

Rogers, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316851531 ISBN 13: 9780316851534

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1999

Synopsis

At the age of 29 Nikki - having spent her childhood and adolescence in and out of foster homes - decides to try and find the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Intent on revenge she tracks her down to a remote Scottish Island where she's now living with her mentally retarded son and under an assumed identity takes a room in her mother's house. Gradually Nikki becomes closer to Callum her brother - until the domestic tension reaches breaking point...

Jane Rogers' new book is a bold re-invention of the revenge thriller.

About this title

Review:

Nikki Black owes nobody anything. She's hard, selfish, hurt and vengeful. If only she could stop having the Fear and falling from one disaster to the next, she could possibly succeed. But a childhood in erratic care has made her unable to retain a hold on life and when she decides at 28 to kill the mother who left her on the steps of Camden Post Office as a baby, she gains a clean, clear vindictive purpose. Since the preface of Jane Rogers' sixth novel is a local news report of the murder, the tale is less a suspense novel than a whydunnit, setting off at a cracking pace, as Nikki describes her alienation from "the mummied and daddied kids" and her fury at being constantly rejected by her carers. "She made me this; the one you can walk away from". When Nikki traces her mother to a remote and dismal Scottish island, she discovers that she has "a special half-wit of a brother", called Calum, who's like "something that's been grown in the dark, forced, like rhubarb under a flowerpot". Nikki rents a room in her mother's house to snoop and plan the most effective means of murder. Rogers' mordantly smooth humour becomes less vicious as Nikki befriends the fearless and lonely Calum. He tells her the history of the island through folktales which connect to Nikki's untapped inner world and rescue her from her own island of isolation and jealous rage. A compelling and chilling morality tale whose themes of redemption and loss are subtle and poignant. --Cherry Smyth

Review:

The mindscape of an intelligent young woman who has never known any kind of love is brilliantly portrayed...This is a story where there is a kind of cathartic redemption (THE TIMES)

A novel of redemption (Nicci Gerrard, OBSERVER)

Heart breakingly lyrical (GUARDIAN)

Original and compelling ... 'Tempest (territory')

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0316851531
• ISBN 13: 9780316851534
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272