Customer Reviews

Gullstruck Island

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Exhilarating, Harrowing, Astonishing . . . Those are only a few of the appropriate adjectives for Francis Hardinge's latest novel, "Gullstruck Island." I can only think no one else has written a review yet because it seems presumptuous to comment on such an achievement. The characters--quiet, determined Hathin; the irresponsible seer Arilou; the Superior, buried beneath the weight of his ancestry; sly Jimboly; monumental Dance; and many, many others--stay in one's mind after reading. The themes--from the way we respond to overwhelming loss and the pitfalls of intercultural communication to scapegoating and the nature of attraction--are innumerable and interlinking, and the plot shows some facets easily while surprising with others. One wants to linger in reading in the knowledge that it will be a long time before another novel of this calibre is encountered, but dash through to alleviate the almost overwhelming suspense. But it is the beauty of the prose that is most noticeable. Emily Dickinson wrote something like, "If I feel that the top of my head is taken off, I know that is poetry," and there are more moments of that sheer, hair-raising astonishment at the deadly perfection of a turn of phrase and thought in this novel than any other in recent years. Many novels, including Hardinge's first, "Fly By Night," deserve 5 stars, but this is one of the rarities that is in an entirely different category altogether, requiring six or more stars. I only wish my review could capture some of the beauty and terror that fills this work.