Imagine the films South Pacific, Nim's Island and Swiss Family Robinson, the first of which is mentioned in the text. Then forget about them.
Now think of Apocalypse Now and Rosemary's Baby, and you'll have some idea of what happens. It starts off innocently enough , with a missionary and his wife clearly out of their depth on an island whose culture they don't understand There are no home comforts, They have to get used to eating the foul island food, enduring the insect bites and constant scrutiny. This is also a story of a dysfunctional marriage. The husband believes he has rescued his wife, and does not expect her to think for herself.
Typically when you introduce Christianity to a 'heathen' place, an awful lot of the traditions and practices are absorbed into it. In this book, it gradually becomes clear that the island ways of 'tabu' and 'dark praying' have taken over, and many pay a heavy price for being ungodly. Tensions mount throughout the book, and at the climax we are unsure of the outcome, and very very glad we are not on the island ourselves.

Spending time on an island in the South Pacific sounds nice doesn’t it?
What about being trapped on a hot and humid island, with bugs your only regular contact apart from your religious missionaries, and a level of claustrophobia so high you’ll be be screaming to escape?

Welcome to (luckily fictional) Advent Island in the South Pacific!

When reading this book I felt many emotions - I wanted to scratch myself because of the many bugs in the book, I felt unsettled with the amount of religion and obsession there and I almost ducked a few times with the overhanging trees which claw you into the claustrophobic island atmosphere.

There’s a certain in way with words in the book as well which works like swishes of the paint brush to pain a very very exotic and colourful picture.

“On the days when the plane merely circled over the strip like a large gull, and headed back west again, Max felt a crochet hook of disappointment picking at the lining of his stomach.”

This is an unsettling but ultimately brilliant read which looks at religion and a marriage unravelling at speed. It’s a study in many things - humankind and I felt like a puppet master at times, just with no control. It was like watching an accident waiting to happen through your fingers.

Ultimately fascinating.

This book is so descriptive and contains some beautiful imagery and at times really made me feel as though I was actually in the jungle.

I struggled to connect with any of the characters and at times felt there wasn't much of a plot, although this may be due to the fact that I read this book slowly over quite a few weeks.

Max and Bea are missionaries on an island - things aren't quite as they expected. There is already a missionary on site and the natives have some firm ideas of their own. Bea spends a lot of time picking rat droppings out of the rice and trying to coax edible plants to grow in her garden.

As the newly weds find their place on the island they reach a happy peace in their relationship, this equilibrium is destroyed when Max goes down with an illness.

The tension in the last part of the book builds with the tropical heat and communal madness. All in all it reinforces my innate suspicion of organised religion, I won't be going off on a mission soon.

A good read!

Bea accompanies her new husband Max on his mission to the New Hebrides of the mid-20th century. It’s not a brand new mission, the previous incumbent of the post, Marietta, is still on the island and makes a surprise, unwelcome reappearance a few months after they arrive. But this version of Protestant Christianity has only a tenuous hold on the hearts of the islanders, who tend to overlay it with belief in devilry and exorcism rituals, not to mention clinging on to the old pre-Christian faith in leaf magic. An incident on the mountaintop involving Max and Marietta leaves Max mentally unbalanced and his mission starts to break down, leaving Bea vulnerable to sinister forces.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of the village and the surrounding jungle is the outstanding achievement of this novel. Torrential rain turning the landscape into a mudbath, the sweltering heat and humidity, festering sores, vermin and insects make it so difficult to carve out more than a temporary existence in such a place. As seen in Bea’s attempts at gardening, the slightest loss of vigilance and the jungle creeps back in to reclaim its own.

The author has a splendid way with words and produces some cracking imagery. Just one example that particularly struck me:

‘On the days when the plane merely circled over the strip like a large gull, and headed back west again, Max felt a crochet hook of disappointment picking at the lining of his stomach.’

There is an appealing deadpan humour here too. I loved the idea of the tasty vegetable garnish Bea adds to meals known only as ‘hedge’.

Highly recommended and, since this is the author’s debut novel, I can’t wait to see what she tackles next.

Things Bright and Beautiful is a tense and claustrophobic novel set on a South Pacific island. Beatriz accompanies her husband Max, a missionary, to a remote island, where he tries to spread what he thinks is the right religious message amidst strange noises coming from the church and Beatriz has to get used to the jungle climate and lack of food. But just as they seem to have got used to their new surroundings, they suddenly must play host to the old missionary, who hums all the time and takes up a space that both Beatriz and Max grow to resent. When things take a dark turn and Max isn’t the same, Beatriz finds herself desperate and trapped.

The novel starts with their unexpected guest arriving and then uses flashbacks to show how Beatriz, from Venezuela, and Max, an American, ended up on the island and attempted to adjust. This style makes it slightly disorientating in a way that seems to work along with the narrative to show the dangers of religious mania and guilt. Beatriz is an interesting character and she holds the novel together, particularly in relation to the opinions and actions of her husband.

Salam’s novel is an atmospheric look at both a personal crisis and a larger situation. This is a book for readers looking for something that is more about creating atmosphere and central characters than a gripping plot.