I wasn’t sure what to make of this book sadly, I don’t think it was wholly for me. I loved the imagery and the beautiful language used. The story itself got a way from me a little and I didn’t follow it as well as I would have liked. A me problem, I’m sure. I’m sure lots will have loved it.

DNF around 30-40%. Just could not get engrossed in this title - it felt a bit disjointed and lacking real emotional depth.

Greenland, the Faroe Islands' Danish counterpart, serves as the backdrop for this tale of a torn Faroese family spanning generations. While the premise is promising, the book fails to truly evoke the unique culture and social climate of the islands. The narrator's omniscience contradicts the theme of cultural heritage loss. A missed opportunity to delve deeper into the enchanting Faroe Islands.

When I saw Island on NetGalley I requested it because I thought it was about Iceland and I wanted to prepare for a trip there. It wasn’t, but that didn’t diminish my interest while reading it.

The book was actually about the Faroe Islands—islands located between Scotland and Iceland and, like Iceland, was a Danish subject. The book is told in split timelines about a young woman returning to her home island and her grandmother who had left it.

The timelines could be a little confusing, but the book itself was very well written and there were scenes (like the dancing scene) that were so beautifully woven together—really wonderful writing. While reading, I was simultaneously learning about the family’s history and the history of the islands.

I enjoyed this new-to-me author and getting to get a taste of this different history and culture. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

beautifully written exploration of identity, family, and the connections to a minority/not-so-well-represented culture as the child of immigrants.

Largely set on the Faroe Islands, this lyrical and atmospheric novel explores the idea of home through the eyes of a young woman of Faroese-Danish ancestry who travels back to the Islands after her grandfather’s death from Denmark where she was born and has always lived. Increasingly she feels the pull of “home” even though the Faroes have never actually been her home. It’s a tale of homecoming, exile, connection and belonging, and through the stories of her forebears she explores her own feelings about her heritage. The Faroe Islands are self-governing but officially still part of Denmark, and the unnamed narrator feels conflicted about where she truly belongs. It’s an interesting novel and raises some interesting questions, but I found the non-linear disjointed narrative confusing at times, and I never really connected to the young woman. In the other main strand she relates the history of her grandparents, and their feelings about their true home, and I related more to them, but overall this was a novel that kept me on the outside looking in, and although I enjoyed it, I remained as disconnected as the protagonist does.

Island is a novel of identity, family, traditions, beliefs, stories, and culture set in Denmark and the Faroe Islands from the early 1940s following three generations of one family….the children and grandchildren and extended family of Fritz and Marita, beloved Abbe and Ooma.

The story is told through a continuous series of episodes, moving back and forth within the timeline and between the island and the city. The prose is often captivating, with curious and interesting turns of phrases. Of course when a work is a translation, I always wish I could know the original language. As it’s not possible here, I credit both author and translator. Nature becomes a part of the story as persistent fog affects lives as well as views. Water, rain, wind are forces always affecting life and involved in the stories handed down.

While I did appreciate this story of a family and found much to like in the prose itself, I repeatedly found myself becoming jarred out of the tale by frequent changes in the story and timeline. The primary narrator, ultimately, is a granddaughter who is speaking on her family, her memories, her dreams. Even her stories occasionally became confused for me because of a lack of indication of a change in the timeline. I did find that the final 25-30% of the book was better, with a smoother flow.

Rating 3.5*. Recommended with reservations as above. It is a society that is new to me and which I haven’t read about. I always appreciate that.

A copy of this book was provided by Pushkin Press through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Faroe Islands have always intrigued me and on my bucket list of travel destinations, so this book was a must-read. It follows three generations of related women flipping between the different timelines, with the eldest generation dreaming of leaving the suffocating Islands and consequently achieving this by running away to Copenhagen. The middle generation being brought up as primarily Danish with not much interest in her family history whilst the youngest is fascinated with her Faroese past and suffers badly from home-sickness for a place she’s never lived. A fascinating look at the interpretation of “home”.

Absorbing, and quick read, ostensibly about the lives of people in the Faro Islands, but it could be about people anywhere-those who leave, and those who stay. The author perfectly captures the dynamics of families and family gatherings-we all know what those are like, with relatives from all over being pointed out to you, usually qualified by how well they've done (or not), great aunts and third cousins and everyone in between. I love the nuances and cadences of conversations that she captures so perfectly. It reminded me of my visits to my grandparents' village, and the swirl of conversation-the ones about black sheep and ne'er-do-wells in the family being the most interesting, of course! The book follows two narrative strands-it starts with the narrator and her parents visiting the Faro Islands for her grandmother's funeral, and deciding to visit the islands, tracing their family history. The other narrative strand is a recounting of the narrator's grandmother's life, and all the people and history it intersects with. Both narrative strands are fascinating and moving, with immersive descriptions of the landscapes -one of her descriptions of a rainy football match and I could practically feel the spray of the rain on my face and the wind whipping my hair. It's interesting to read about the position of the Faro Islands-I didn't know much about them at all, that there exists an uneasy state of truce, for instance, with the loss of the Faroese language being an issue close to the heart of many Faro Islanders. It's an interesting perspective to get, while also remaining universal in its evocation of the ties that bind us, and the strong backbone of all the women who keep us going.

Interesting book with really strong writing and solid ideas! Definitely a little hard to get into but that aside I found it enjoyable, though not super memorable

A young Danish woman explores her family's past and Faroe Islands ancestry across three generations. In the process she uncovers details of the passions and challenges her grandparents and their siblings confronted when they were her age, and considers universal themes of home and identity.

Lush, lyrical prose transports the reader.

Family brings the young woman back to the Faroe Islands - the windswept, rocky northern archipelago where she has never lived but which she has always called home. There she finds her stories entwining with those of her ancestors as she searches for a way to connect with the culture and her kin. Rooted in the wild beauty of the islands and the author's own history, this is a bewitching tale of exile, homecoming, and what it means to belong.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Island is a nostalgic intimate walk through a family's past. Told through three different timelines, it's a story about a generation leaving to start a life somewhere else, and another one coming back years later, trying to reconnect with the land and her mother's side of the family. It's a novela about family, indentity and belonging.
It reads like a sensory experience, the descriptions are vivid, lyrical and you can picture the Faroes's landscape, and almost feel the air against your skin. It's almost like a walking meditation.

It did feel a little scattered with its non-linear narrative and it was sometimes hard to keep track of which character's memories we're in, past or present.

I still enjoyed it. I learned a fair amount about the islands culture, and found the contemplative still quite relaxing. Being a child of immigration myself, there were thoughts I definitely could relate to. This feeling of being a tourist in your own country, the need to find a connection...

Thanks to @netgalley and @pushkin_press for the e-arc.

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen is understated and poetic and a little melancholic, too, as it follows two timelines in the same family: a Danish woman who is returning to the Faroes to visit family and that of her grandmother who immigrated to Denmark generations before.

Island is the literary equivalent of flipping through a family photo album filled with distant relatives that you've either never met or of whom you only have vague memories. Each small chapter in this novel is a snapshot in that photo album, a marker of a person or event or place in time that the protagonist is tenuously connected to by blood and collective memory, and also by her longing to connect to her origins while feeling outside of it all. In glimpsing through the generations of this family, we experience the fleetingness of memory, and the reality that some memories will disappear when those who remember are gone. All of these impressions build to a larger picture of the dynamics of this family, and also examines what "home" actually means, why we leave it, and why we return.

A story about the past, family, and how it affects the present, "Island" is a pretty little surprise for someone who doesn't know much about the world where the story is set in. It is about the journey of a young Danish woman who goes back to the land of her ancestors (Faroe islands). But more than about her going back to that land is about what going 'home' means for her, for her understanding of herself and about the impact the stories she has heard about that land and her family has played in her life.

Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen does a great job in bringing the world to live (little snippets into the past, about family members, her grandmother, etc.) and in making the reader understand the feelings of the main character. It is not particularly original or memorable (there are many characters who just feel too familiar, which is good and bad at the same time) but it is a read that transports the reader to another and different world. Maybe there is something lacking, a little more depth into how the main character feels, because it all remains in the surface. It could be the time jumps, which made me disconnect from what the author was telling. Maybe because there is little difference between the past and the present (a seemingly conscious decision by the author): this creates an ambigous atmosphere which sometimes took me from its world.

The writing style is moody, beautiful, and perfect for the story. The translation work seems to be top notch, by the way.

While not quite my cup of espresso, I do find so much beauty in stories of generations within the same family. They always tell the story of a legacy rather than a plot or adventure. It always shows how our communities impact our families and vice versa.

he story is told by our named narrator about her visit to the Faro Islands after the death of her Grandmother.

We follow her visit and her description of the beautiful landscape, alongside the memories of the family, of how the grandparents had originally migrated to Denmark in the 1930s. Intertwined with her own story of living in Denmark.

The story is beautifully written and describes the places, weather, culture and isolation. However, I did not connect to the characters. The book is not plot driven, it is memory and description, so as a reader who enjoys connecting with a character I found it difficult to resonant with the narrator. Although the themes of loss, grief, finding a place to call home intriged to me.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Pushkin Press for an eArc of the book for review.

Island is a strange book. The descriptive passages and the atmosphere were excellently done, but there was very little in the way of plotting or characterisation.

The timeline is choppy, cutting from one decade to another with no warning and very little clue about where/when the story had moved to. I found that disorientating until I defocussed and just let the atmosphere take hold.

I found the book interesting, but can’t quite say I enjoyed it. Definitely one for readers who enjoy atmosphere more than plot.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I enjoyed this for the insight into life in the Faroe Islands but struggled a bit to connect what felt more like snippets than narrative, It's a dual time line novel between present and the 1930s. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting read.

This book is about various characters living on or deeply connected to the Faroe Islands. It portrays the islands from multiple perspectives covering a variety of perspectives and age ranges, as well as their relationship to the complicated history with Denmark.
While I found the imagery and history fascinating, in the end the book proved to be more style than substance. While focusing on the beautiful imagery and the characters' surroundings, I failed to connect to any of the characters. I was sympathetic to their flight and circumstance, but to the point of reading a very vague article in the newspapers.
Even though my overall feelings were negative, I would still read something else by this author. I found the style of writing, in a combination with the subject matter, showed promise.

Island

Set in the Faroe Islands and Copenhagen and spanning three generations this novel looks at what home is and the sense of belonging in each generation following migration. The novel switches between two timelines, firstly, the migration of Marita to Copenhagen and secondly, her children and grandchildren returning to the Faroe Islands for the funeral of Marita.

I found it hard to follow at first because the structure constantly moves from one timeline to another. As a second generation migrant I felt a lot of resonance with the difficulties in feeling belonging to a place that your parents don’t feel that connection to and conversely feeling an almost mythical connection to a place you don’t know. I thought the book was a great meditation on this and is a beautifully written novel with credit to the translator.