A review by ms_tiahmarie
An Island by Karen Jennings

~The body he saw only once he arrived. He side-stepped it, walking a tight circle around the drum. It was fat as a president, without any visible crack or punctures.~

~A prison can't be your home.~

~One morning he called to the couple across the road, waved his flag at them, said, 'I'm sorry that your story isn't as happy as the one we have in this country, but I'm glad we're able to give you a new and better life here.'
The woman smiled, but the man said, 'It was like this for us too, uncle. I'm sorry to tell you that. We were exactly like you.'

~Who didn't want to be more than they were, who didn't want to rise up out of the dirt and be something?~

~Samuel had learnt over the years what an ungrateful place the island was. How difficult to discipline and nurture. The vegetation was unkind, hard in places, soft as ash in others. It spread where it would, taking over as it wished - yet there were stretches of bleakness where the land was bald and unyielding, a thing of sand and rock.~