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Three Reasons You Should Read This Contemporary Women’s Fiction:
- This Other Island by Steffanie Edward is a family story about relationships found and lost, family history, and how people define themselves and find their identity.
- I was able to take a glimpse into a culture and generation that I wasn’t really familiar with, and I learned a lot about them.
- I did not see the big reveal coming at all. It sort of jumps out of nowhere but gave the story a very interesting twist at the end.
About This Other Island by Steffanie Edward
Title: This Other Island
Author: Steffanie Edward
Genre: Women’s Fiction
When Yvette receives a call to say her estranged father Joe has been attacked in a seemingly random act of violence, she rushes to his side.
But when she arrives, she finds a man different to the larger-than-life father of her memories. Joe is broken, too scared to describe his attacker to the police, and seemingly haunted by memories of his past – memories he’s fought to suppress.
About the boat journey that brought him and his wife Dolina to their new home in a hostile and unwelcoming Britain – as part of the Windrush Generation. About the secrets left behind in St Lucia… And about the darkest secret of all – the one that he has carried with him since stepping off the boat that cool, wet August day.
As he fights for his life, he begs Yvette to find out what really happened on the last day of that crossing. Because, for forty years, Joe has believed that he killed a man. A man who had loved Dolina too. And who might hold the key to Yvette’s own story…
What follows is a heart-stopping debut novel about family, identity, secrets, lies, and the journeys that define us. It will grip you, challenge you, and ultimately break you into a thousand pieces. Perfect for fans of Small Island and Girl, Woman, Other.
My review of This Other Island:
This Other Island by Steffanie Edward was an interesting story. Yvette returns to her parents in England after being raised by her aunt on the islands. And now we’re in the present day, watching her life unfold in front of us. Her life doesn’t seem overly remarkable at first. She has a good job, friends, and a steady boyfriend (who is afraid to commit to being more).
At first, I struggled to see where the story was going. I enjoy reading a book that’s just the story of everyday life, but this one had promised to be more than that. I started to see this “something more” when Yvette’s father asks her to find a man from his past, a man that seems to hold no major significance but ends up playing a very key role in the end.
The story moved a little slower than I expected, with a lot of focus on the relationship between the characters and less on who this mysterious man might be. It really allowed me to get into the characters’ heads and dig around to see what made them tick. It also allowed me a glimpse into a culture that I knew very little about. At times the accent of the older generations was difficult to read. Still, by using it, the author really drew a line between generations that showcased how much changes and how many stays the same even after just one generation.
The end felt a little rushed. After a slow and intricate build-up, there were a lot of things that got dropped in my lap all at once, and then suddenly, the story was done. While this helped me understand the craziness of what was going on, it was also a little hard to transition to this new pace mentally.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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About Steffanie Edward
Steffanie Edward was born in St Lucia, brought up in London and now straddles between the two.
Anancy, Crick-crick and other Caribbean folk stories have been a part of her life since childhood. In her late teens she enjoyed reading Susan Howatch and books on slavery. Her absolute favourite reads have been Wild Seed by Octavia E Bulter, and Woman At Point Zero by Naawal El Saadawi.
Her writing career started with short stories, five of which have been published. Her first attempt at writing a novel was over twenty years ago, whilst living and working in Abu Dhabi. That novel, Yvette, didn’t make it into print, but the main protagonist, Yvette, has muscled her way into Steffanie’s debut novel, This Other Island.
