Today for our book club I’m bringing you an intriguing new work of historical intrigue.

Ian Kemish’s Two Islands

Ian Kemish AM is a former Australian diplomat. His first book, The Consul, offered a personal perspective on Australia’s foreign affairs challenges. Two Islands is his first work of fiction.

The background to the novel are the war crimes trials conducted in the aftermath of The Wars in The Balkans in the 1990’s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague involved international teams, including many Australians and has been the subject of numerous books exploring their ongoing impacts. Sharp listeners may recall Gretchen Shirm’s Out of the Woods last year which explored circumstances around the trials.

The Two Islands of the title are Skarnsey and Thorkil’s Isle in Scotland’s Hebrides. It is there that Niko has fled on a desperate whim. There the residents are not unwelcoming of visitors and it is a world away from the violence he has seen and which he was due to testify about at the International Criminal Tribunal. Only now the past is threatening to catch up with Niko and he fears if he doesn’t run the violence will continue to threaten himself and his family.

Into this setting we meet Ronnie and the other villagers in Lamhraig. There is also Fergus, another stranger to the islands and seeking refuge from a different kind of threat; the one he fears he poses to himself and others.

A world away Anita has returned to Australia to see her dying father. She fears she’s neglecting her role as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal, but also what may happen if she fails to see her father.

The setup is deceptively simple; can Anita and the Tribunal find Niko before more sinister forces do, and will he be willing to continue to testify against the violence that continues to plague him.

Into this story we have the dueling narratives of Ronnie, Fergua and Niko. Each has seen war close up; Ronnie on the battlefields of the second world war, Fergus in Northern Ireland and Niko as a boy in his home town. Each must find a way to go on and it is through the narrative we are offered a glimpse of what that may be.

In all honesty I came to Two Islands for the scenic vistas of The Hebrides. The book evokes the peace of the islands and the way of life of the locals. It also takes pains not to romanticize it, even as it threatens to shatter the sense of isolation and peace in pursuit of Niko.

The novel does well to show us these parallel stories of war as brutal encroachments on the lives of these three men, and the toll they will carry through their lives. I might have liked to hear more of each, particularly Ronnie, to better understand and to counter the thriller aspect as a horrific consequence of ongoing tensions.

As we watch war in our world and look to how it touches our lives it can be helpful to explore narratives such as Two Islands. The Wars in the Balkans we mere decades ago and their impacts are still felt. We may hope to never feel the close up effects of conflict but must acknowledge that they are part of the world we live in. Two Islands shows us something of what that means

Book Club - Ian Kemish’s Two Islands