Mr Peacock's Possessions by Lydia Syson - #BookReview

 

To be sure I am a doubting Thomas. Too much curiosity, too little faith, and that from early days and always. Off-duty, I stand on deck, wave-watching, awash with qualms. I let drift my mind and vex myself alone, afraid to frighten my fellows, whispering only to wind and water. All is wind and water here.

I did not choose this path - the path of doubting, that is to say, doubting both myself and higher matters. And now the ocean path we follow here, a path so freely taken, stretches before me unclear, unknown, unproven, and I worry and wonder still if it was wise to take it. What if we find no island, or if there is no master living? Where then will the Captain take us? And what if this Yankee has lied to us despite our minister? We have no papers. Proof of nothing. We leapt so fast. Nine days at sea, and we see nothing of our landing place.

***

Oceania, 1879. For two years the Peacocks, a determined family of settlers, have struggled to make a remote volcanic island their home. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled over eight hundred miles in search of new horizons. Hopes are high, until a vulnerable boy vanishes.

In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force young Lizzie Peacock to question her deepest convictions, and slowly this tiny, fragile community begins to fracture...

***

This is one of the best books that I have read this year. I was completely captivated by the story of the Peacock family, who on the face of it appear as a close unit. However, as the book progresses we come to see and understand how dysfunctional they really are.

The titular Mr. Peacock, is a presence that looms large over not just the characters of this book, but of the island itself. Indeed, the island is so significant to the story that it almost presents as a character in it's own right.

The author has skilfully used her prose to describe the atmosphere on this volcanic island. It oozes with description and atmosphere and the reader can feel the tensions created through the hard life of attempting to settle in an inhospitable natural environment.

The narrative changes between Lizzie, a daughter within the Peacock family and Kalala, one of the Pacific Islanders who have come to work on the island. Two such varying characters make for interesting reading as their perspectives and loyalties lie in different directions.

I liked the characters of the two narrators and it was interesting to observe the realisation that they both come to regarding the island and it's inhabitants.

I thought this was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 1471403699

Publisher: Zaffre

Formats: e-book, hardcover and paperback

No. of Pages: 432 (paperback)

About the Author:

Lydia Syson grew up in Botswana and London and spent her early career as a BBC World Service radio producer.  She has since written a PhD on Timbuktu (2003), a critically acclaimed biography of Britain’s first fertility guru, Doctor of Love: James Graham and his Celestial Bed (2008), and three novels for young adults published by Hot Key Books. Her YA books, set in the Spanish Civil War (A World Between Us – 2012) and World War Two (That Burning Summer – 2013) and the Paris Commune of 1871, (Liberty's Fire – 2015), were loosely inspired in different ways by her own family history. For her adult fiction debut,  Mr Peacock's Possessions (2018), set on a remote volcanic island in Oceania in the 1870s, Lydia has borrowed from the family history of her partner, who was born in New Zealand.

(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

(author photo and bio courtesy of the author's website)