The Naked Island

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

In July 1787, the Dutch in Java murdered the Indonesian priest Qadar.
One hundred years later, the Armenian Sarkies brothers opened the
Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and a farmhouse was built on Evans Point,
Ontario, on the shores of Lake Erie. In Java, Zulkanyan, a descendant of
the slain priest Qadar, died suddenly when a curse he had set against
his neighbour turned against him. His soul was set to wander in search
of revenge.

This is the background against which The Naked Island is set. It is the
story of Rachel Lynn Gold, a young Jewish woman in small-town Ontario
who, betrayed by her lover and older sister, sets out on an odyssey to
India, Nepal, Singapore, and Australia in search of her lost self. Far
from home and armed with nothing but a broken heart and a restless soul,
she is vulnerable to the many ghosts who haunt her. In Singapore, she
meets the unlikely love of her life, Kifi Talib, a Malaysian Muslim who
unbeknownst to her is possessed by the dark spirit Zulkanyan. But the
Jewish woman-child from Dunnville, Ontario, and the Muslim man-boy from
Singapore fall into a forbidden affair, an intense love that both
protects Rachel and threatens her with complete annihilation.

In essence, the entire book is a record of one woman’s journey
through a dreamscape of love, possession, and release. The mix of
cultures portrayed is fascinating. The writing itself is lyrical and
magnetic. It has an almost poetic quality, drawing the reader inexorably
through Rachel’s voyage.

This is an impressive first novel that may also be read as a fairy tale
or a moral tale. For all its positive merits, however, I found it
slightly unsatisfying probably because I am not a great lover of
Gothic-type novels. Those who are will certainly enjoy The Naked Island,
and those who appreciate good writing will find much to recommend it.