The Island of Last Truth

I picked up this novella almost at random in a bookstore, never having heard the title or the author, and liked the first page enough to buy it and start reading it on the spot. It was a quick read, a nautical tale in the tradition of Defoe and Conrad by an Argentine woman who moved to Barcelona and wrote it in Catalan. And it was excellent.

It begins with a mysterious doctor at a New York party who was rumored to be shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years. The bulk of the story is told by him through the woman he falls in love with and lives with for seven years. The epilogue following his death is by the woman, and puts a fascinating twist on everything that came before it.

The bulk of the novel is a castaway story as the man is show more trapped on a small deserted island with a pirate he thought he had killed. In almost the opposite of the civilization depicted in Robinson Crusoe, in this novella they divide up the island, each have territories the other is not allowed in, and rarely cooperate or trade. The tension mounts as he doctor becomes increasingly impatient to find out what is going on in the territory of the pirate.

Ultimately, it is not clear whether it should be read as a realistic story or as an allegory of two sides of a man struggling with himself. But it reads well either way. show less

I picked up this novella almost at random in a bookstore, never having heard the title or the author, and liked the first page enough to buy it and start reading it on the spot. It was a quick read, a nautical tale in the tradition of Defoe and Conrad by an Argentine woman who moved to Barcelona and wrote it in Catalan. And it was excellent.

It begins with a mysterious doctor at a New York party who was rumored to be shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years. The bulk of the story is told by him through the woman he falls in love with and lives with for seven years. The epilogue following his death is by the woman, and puts a fascinating twist on everything that came before it.

The bulk of the novel is a castaway story as the man is show more trapped on a small deserted island with a pirate he thought he had killed. In almost the opposite of the civilization depicted in Robinson Crusoe, in this novella they divide up the island, each have territories the other is not allowed in, and rarely cooperate or trade. The tension mounts as he doctor becomes increasingly impatient to find out what is going on in the territory of the pirate.

Ultimately, it is not clear whether it should be read as a realistic story or as an allegory of two sides of a man struggling with himself. But it reads well either way. show less

The tenses in the narration change, but throughout the writing is crisp and precise. A disappearance of five years, a reappearance and a story, pirates, stranded on a deserted island and a mystery. How did he survive? How did he escape? A taut psychological thriller, a secret and questions of morality that are all explored in this rather small but extremely interesting novel.

A small, smart, mesmerizing nautical tale to rival the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson.

2.5

Vor kurzem habe ich eine "Inselbuch-Verlosung" gewonnen und größtenteils Inselkrimis erhalten sowie das ein oder andere "Entspannte Insel-Frauenbuch".
Hier kommt nun noch eine andere Kategorie: Die Insel als Schauplatz für Einsamkeit und existentielle Selbsterfahrung. Es handelt sich hier eher um eine kurze Novelle als einen Roman. Am Ende seines Lebens erzählt der Arzt Matthew Prendel seiner Freundin Phoebe die Geschichte seines Schiffbruchs, die er bisher niemandem erzählt hatte. Beim Segeln wurden er und seine Freunde auf der ostafrikanischen Atlantikseite von Piraten überfallen. Prendel selbst schießt einen der Piraten an, doch seine Freunde sterben. Er selbst kann schwimmend fliehen. Nach Tagen erreicht er eine Insel, wo er show more auf den von ihm angeschossenen Piraten trifft. Die beiden Männer verbringen Jahre auf der Insel.
Das Buch ist knapp geschrieben, dennoch kann man sich die Handlung sehr gut vorstellen. Das Ende ist ausgezeichnet, etwas unerwartet vielleicht, aber völlig stimmig. Ein tolles Buch! show less

Llibre curt i facil de llegir, sorprenent.