By Christina McLaurine
The Island of Forgetting is a debut novel by Jasmine Sealy about family, memory, and truth. Iapetus is haunted by images of his mother and brother murdering their father. Feeling indebted to his uncle Cronus for taking him, Atlas struggles to choose between leaving the island and staying to help run the family business. Calypso, determined to live a colourful robust life far removed from that of her parents and her Uncle Z’s hotel, falls heedlessly in love with a visiting businessman. Struggling with his identity and lack of parental relationships, Nautilus is on a dangerous path of self-destruction. Four generations. One family trying to grapple with their past in the hope of a better future.
The Island of Forgetting is broken into three parts, and each reads almost like a novella. The stories of Atlas, Calypso, and Nautilus are told in chronological order but lead one into another, generation by generation, to tell a beautiful family saga.
Sealy weaves themes of mental unwellness throughout The Island of Forgetting in a way that centers the person and not the illness. Multiple characters struggle with varying degrees of mental unwellness, which is both depicted through internal dialogue and interactions with other characters. Some readers may recognize behaviour patterns but they are never named or referred to by western pathologies. In this way, there is no separating the character from an illness or diagnosis. Be it incoherent ramblings, drastic changes in mood, or self-destructive tendencies, they are part of the character, and the focus is not on treating an illness or managing symptoms but on helping the person heal and grow.
The Island of Forgetting is a medium-paced novel perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven stories.
Thank you, Harper Collins, for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!