Between Islands is a collection of short stories about people in and from The Bahamas . I will say off the bat I know Rhys personally and that may colour the way I read the book.

Rhys's writing flows. He writes with an island rhythm, yet the voice reminded me of a "classic" book (think Oliver Twist or Moll Flanders). It's been a long time since I've had to google what some words mean in a book but Rhys had me pausing to nail down exactly what a word meant in a sentence. I like when writers flex their erudite quality. To boil it down to one sentence - the writing read with both island tang, having Bahamian dialect throughout, and the thickness of "classic." It was unlike anything I've read up until now but highly enjoyable.

I always find it hard to review short story collections. Do you review stories one by one or do you look at the work as a whole? Taking the work as a whole approach, I have read 2 or 3 of these stories before as some of them have appeared online through literary magazines etc. The characters are all distinct and fascinating. Rhys doesn't just write about Nassau living but extends his stories to some of the family islands. I love when writers imbue their own personal experiences into their stories, and you can see it throughout Between Islands .

The open endings of the stories made me pause. I love an open ending that allows for reflection. I'm so happy to see more Bahamian work out into the world. I think this is great contribution to the short story world, Caribbean literature in general, and the continuation of building the Bahamian literary tradition. Rhys dives deep with the different symbols and themes in each story. I'm excited to see what else he will come up with in the future.

Rank the stories from my favourite to least favourite - which was actually extremely hard to do especially towards the middle - are as follows:

Sea Oats
Friday Visits
Remaining Friends
Sponger Money
The Boundaries of Our Inheritance
Everyone Wants It to Be Morning
The Cay