Islands by Gwen GB.


                   Islands by Gwen GB.

"How could a child, let alone several children, have gone missing without anybody noticing, without somebody querying where they'd gone?"

Islands is a powerful and personal story based around the tragedy of miscarriages and the horrors of physical and sexual abuse. It is Gwen's debut novel and worth a read.
The timeline covers Katherine's late teenage years in 1976 into the 1980s and to her maturity in 2008. In the background we are reminded of actual historical events such as the Shannon Matthews case, Haut de la Garenne, Elisabeth and Josef Fritzl and the Lockerbie Pan Am 103 flight.

Footloose and fancy-free, that's how Katherine was as she took her final exams, inseparable from her friend Anne. Both are relishing the prospect of leaving school with boys on their minds, obsessed with Darren Le Brocq and Mark Vibert. Katherine's mother, Marie indicates her displeasure in her daughter's relationship with Anne creating tension which soon escalates. The Sands nightclub should have been the highlight of the summer, a "culmination of a thousand teenage dreams" with growing physical and sexual awareness. It turned out to be a nightmare not for Katherine and Darren but for Mark and Anne. Whilst Katherine daydreams about Darren she has disturbing thoughts over Anne and what happened between her and Mark.

The girls' relationship becomes strained, a bond that is damaged beyond repair. Soon she confronts Darren over Mark's alleged "rape" and Anne sees this as a betrayal. Mark taunts Anne in front of his friends and Anne resorts to suicide. Katherine blames herself but is this the full story?

Katherine fell in love and married John but their problems begin with pregnancy and miscarriages, hope followed by despair on each occasion. Katherine throws herself into her work, her sanctuary as she calls it and moves to London away from her mother and sister Margaret and her family. John tries to settle but finds it difficult and soon returns to Jersey so this puts further strain on their marriage and they become estranged.
Whilst Katherine's life fell apart we are told about the abuse at Haut de la Garenne in St Martin's. The islanders are shocked by this. Jersey has to face up to its hidden past simultaneously as Katherine Gaudin has to face up to hers and this means returning to Jersey, her estranged husband and finally facing her demons-a failed mother, a failed baby-making device.
"We are each of us islands, everyone an individual, full of secrets and experiences no other can see or understand!"

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.
Copyright 2018.Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.

Publisher: Chalky Dog Publishing. ISBN: 978-0-9955165-0-2

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