Seven historical novels set on islands

Connie Pan is a writer from Maui, Hawai‘i. She holds an MFA in fiction from West Virginia University and a BA in creative writing from Grand Valley State University. Her words have appeared in Bamboo Ridge, The Billfold, Carve, HelloGiggles, and Salamander, among other places. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

At Book Riot Pan tagged "seven historical novels unfolding, mostly, on islands around the world and covering almost two hundred years." One novel on the list:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Published in 1984 after taking over a decade to write, this Booker Prize-winning novel feels timeless. On Aotearoa’s South Island coast, Kerewin Holmes, an asexual painter sans family contact and distanced from her art, lives in a tower beside the sea, where she discovers a non-speaking six-year-old named Simon stealing from her. This brings him, as well as Joe Gillayley, his temperamental foster father, into her life. Hard on the heart and breathtaking, this doorstopper meditates on trauma, isolation, and Maori mythology. I found myself in awe of the language: “Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth….”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue