A sad, sad novel of linked stories set in the Dutch colonial Spice Islands. ( )

"She sat quietly in her chair, they weren't a hundred things but much more than a hundred, and not only hers; a hundred times 'a hundred things,' next to each other, separate from each other, touching here and there flowing into each other, without any link anywhere, and at the same time linked forever...."

After her husband left her, Felicia returns with her young son to the island in the Dutch East Indies where she grew up to live with her grandmother in a house in a lush garden near the tropical inner bay. There's a bit of magical realism here (though only distantly-related to the more well-known Latin American magical realism), and from the beginning we know the garden is inhabited by ghosts, in particularly the ghosts of three small girls who died there. The prose is dreamy and surreal as we follow the day to day lives of Felicia and her grandmother, as Felicia's son Himpies moves through an idyllic childhood to young adulthood.

Then a little more than half-way through the book the focus changes and there are three short-story-like chapters, each focusing on a new and seemingly unrelated character and events, while still being set on the island. This bothered a lot of the readers in the Litsy Book Club, and at first I thought that perhaps the book was not a novel, but actually a novella and short story collection. But in the end, I think it is all tied up fairly well.

The setting of the book is an important part of its appeal, and it is also apparently based in large part on the author's life, as she too grew up in the Dutch East Indies, and returned as an adult. For me, some parts were evocative of my childhood growing up on a tropical island in the Dutch West Indies. This is one I recommend, but it for some reason was not one I was constantly thinking about when not reading it, or one I felt compelled to keep reading.

3 stars

FIRST LINE: "On the island in the Moluccas there were a few gardens left from the great days of spice growing and 'spice parks'--a few only."

LAST LINE: "Then the lady of the Small Garden whose name was Felicia stood up from her chair obediently and was looking around at the inner bay in the moonlight--it would remain there always--she went with them, under the trees and indoors, to drink her cup of coffee and try again to go on living." ( )

A lovely book, that I think will stay with me always. The book does so much in not very many pages. There are plenty of interesting characters, well drawn with few strokes. And the natural world is so beautifully described, and such a presence. It's a character on its own. So much atmosphere, so many moments perfectly captured. I was happy to find Rumphius' The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet in my library. Well worth checking out if you read this book, for then you can find pictures of the Amoret Harp, the little duck crabs, a photo of Rumphius' house on Ambon, and much more. ( )

This book was outstanding. I literally could hardly put it down. I read it in two sittings! This author does not describe things, she paints you a clear and vivid picture. You are not an observer of the island, you are there. You are not hearing of the characters, you know them intimately. Just when you think she has taken you on to another story, she brings it all together and ties them together with a neat little piece of sea grass. You shiver with the foreshadowing. You rebuke, but forgive. You mourn and empathize. Your heart fills with understanding. And in the end, you reluctantly put the book down and "try to go on living."

This book was mentioned multiple times by Cheryl Strayed in her memoir "Wild." It is a series of engaging, linked tales that include an overlay of magic. Nice but hardly earth shattering. ( )