The second half of: “The Island,” by Tove Jansson. Part one is here. It’s a rickety structure, one pays for it with fear of darkness and sudden panic—a stirring in the dark, a boat on the horizon. But during the weekdays, with their calmly repetitive and efficient chores, the protective barrier grows taller and firmer. Pull the boat out of…
The IslandFrom: “The Island” by Tove Jansson There is a surprisingly large number of people who go around dreaming about an island.Sometimes deliberate people look for their island and conquer it, and sometimes the dream of the island can be a passive symbol for what is one step beyond reach. The island—at last, privacy, remoteness, intimacy, a rounded whole without…
All the islands I have known become one island whose Eastern coast spreads sandy arms to welcome bathers and sea tortoises while, in the West, a reef shreds the ships of armed invaders. – from “Scapes” in Fledgling (2021) by Sarah White. It being August – and mid-summer – one naturally thinks of escaping to the island – row out…