It took me a while to connect with this, but once I did I was lost in the characters and the relationships between them. Time is fragmented, with many shifts in perspective. I loved that some chapters were told by characters that were peripheral to the main familial characters - it lent well to the feeling of being outside watching this family pull itself apart. This is a work of literary genius, I was sceptical given my less than enthusiastic response to Hope Farm. But in Islands, Frew ripped out my heart in the same way Georgia Blain did with Between a Wolf and a Dog. Without doubt, this is Frew's best work yet. I remain shocked that this didn’t make Stella longlist for 2020, but I am thrilled to see its inclusion for Miles Franklin