Part beautiful, part harrowing. Some passages, especially descriptions of locations and nature, are truly poetic—full of metaphors and similes as fresh as morning dew (unlike that one). In contrast, and skilfully balancing, are gritty descriptions of a dystopian near-future America in which society is fractured, morality has become whatever-it-takes and nature itself seems party to the havoc.

The plot is well structured, dropping surprises that sometimes take a hundred pages to clarify in nice epiphanies for the reader. Really well handled, although momentarily confusing.

Now I want to read ‘Salt Creek‘. ( )

Wolfe Bay, set in the indeterminate near future, is a bleak book: it foreshadows the annihilation of home due to the rising oceans. However what it also shows is that catastrophe can bring out both the best and worst in people, often to their own surprise.

In a departure from the Australian setting of the award-winning Salt Creek (see my review) the central character of this novel lives in America. Kitty Hawke lives alone on high ground on (fictional*) Wolfe Island in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, where she creates art from the debris of summer houses lost to the sea. She is estranged from her husband and daughter on the mainland, and her son has died in circumstances not revealed until late in the book. She is not self-sufficient because the rising salt affects her attempts to grow vegetables, so she travels occasionally to the mainland to buy supplies and to sell her art to her agent. But other than that she has very little contact with other people and she likes it that way.

Over at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, clodge2013 has been posting all month about older women in literature. It's hard to know how much traction this initiative has had, but the reasons for it are obvious: the depiction of older women tends to be stereotypical even amongst contemporary authors. But that's not a trap Lucy Treloar has fallen into...

It's not quite clear how old Kitty is because both her daughter and granddaughter were/are very young mothers. But Kitty has acquired the patina of the older woman through her lifestyle. She lives independently on an island that everyone else has abandoned, and to the people on the mainland, she seems eccentric. Her husband is baffled by her defection: he does not understand her creative impulse. She lives for her art; she is wholly absorbed by it. She thinks about creating her 'makings' as she takes her walks over what's left of the island, and she 'disappears' for days on end when creating.

With weather-beaten skin and hair, Kitty dresses as she pleases, for comfort and practicality, with no thought of fashion or pleasing others. While warmth is crucial to survival in the hostile weather, food and cooking is not important to her, not unless it becomes a source of comfort to others, and she has had to compromise anyway because some foods are no longer available. She has had her share of threats from men who'd thought she was vulnerable and learned otherwise, and she's experienced their cowardly forms of revenge that take place when she isn't there. Her armour is her mature acceptance of things she cannot change. The past is there, and there is much to regret and be blamed for, but it cannot be changed.

Because she lives alone, she has become a little set in her ways. But she is strong and capable, and she's a quick thinker. Crucially, she can adapt to changing circumstances, and as the plot progresses she reveals latent skills (including some that shock) and a capacity for strategy. What surprises her, because she has done without love and family for so long, is her own resurgent love for the people that matter to her.

The catalyst for change is the unexpected arrival of three adolescents and a child.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/30/wolfe-island-by-lucy-treloar/ ( )