The Islands

Reviews / Votes

The Islands is evocative, moving, yet tough-minded, written with marvelous style and authority. After just the first few sentences, we trust absolutely that this writer is in control and knows what he's doing. The narratives move expeditiously, even when they're thick with description, and the characters' voices are distinct and convincing. It was a pleasure to read. * David Gates, judge * William Wall is a tremendous writer, and The Islands is a beautiful collection. In a noisy age of information, these stories, written with pristine elegance and suffused with a rare beauty, do what fiction does best: they uncover deeply humane, quiet moments that radiate meaning. No one-with the exception of James Joyce and Alistair MacLeod-writes about the way the sea meets the land with the authority and knowingness of Wall. The Islands is an elegant and astonishing sequence of stories. * David Means * Past praise for William Wall

Wall, who is also a poet, writes prose so charged-at once lyrical and syncopated-that it's as if Cavafy had decided to write about a violent Irish household." * The <i>New Yorker</i> *