Book Review: “Islandia” by Austin Tappan Wright

If Islandia was a real place, what would I do? Does it matter if it is real? That question stayed with me as I read through this “random” book.

Some moments make me have to stop and ask God, is this You? It’s something about the way all the circumstances seem to line up perfectly, making something that shouldn’t happen, happen.

That’s how I feel about being suggested to read Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright.

I was at church saying goodbye to people as they left, I do this all the time. There was nothing special about this day or these greetings but as I said goodbye to one particular lady, Janene, we connected for just an extra moment and decided to continue our conversation another time. She came to our house to connect with my wife and I and share our stories. 

I was in a rush that day because I was caught between home and work and had to, unfortunately, cut my time short, leaving my wife and Janene together. By the time I got back, our next connection was already planned, dinner at her house with her husband. Remembering that dinner, I immediately was intrigued by her husband, Ron. He is an educator, entrepreneur, writer, and reader. All of the vocations I’ve desired in my life at one time or another. It was the latter, reading, that intrigued me the most and was the centerpiece on the table of our conversation.

I learned he loved Science Fiction, as do I. He shared about his love for the fantasy genre as well and we swapped favorite stories, characters, and books. It was a real nerd festival, and I couldn’t get enough.

Then came the moment, Ron asked, “Have you ever heard of Islandia?” 

Well, I hadn’t. And to be honest, I get a lot of book suggestions, but Ron said something that made this suggestion feel heavy. He said, “Outside of the Bible, it is my favorite book and I’ve read it 8-10 times.” 

I was hooked.

Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, is a story taking place in the early 1900s. A time of industry, globalization, and technological advances. The protagonist, a young man named John Lang, visits the isolated and remote land of Islandia and is overcome by what he finds there. Islandian people have a deep sense of meaning and relationship. Whether it be their neighbors, friends, family or spouse, the bond between them is deep. 

Lang is overwhelmed by the beauty of the land, not because he hasn’t seen anything as beautiful in America, but because the land seems to be connected to her people in an almost spiritual way. A love for your people is a love for the land and vice versa. There is a deep sense of kinship and an understanding about home that Lang, being a foreigner, cannot seem to grasp. This is only made more and more evident by the rejection he feels from the people as he grows closer in relationship to them.

If Islandia was a real place what would I do?

Lang falls for his close friends’ sister, Dorna, who also cares about him deeply. It’s a wonderful love story that ends in heartbreak. He loves her deeply, but her love goes deeper then anything Lang has ever encountered. She loves him but sees he doesn’t have an Islandian love which encompasses place, people, past and future, and she rejects his proposal. Never before in my life has such a fictional rejection impacted me, and also made me look inward at my self.

Lang is then launched on a journey towards a deeper understanding of relationships, home, sex, family and what makes life significant. All of these elements blossoming from a secluded and untouched place known as Islandia. 

I say this lightly, and I know how it sounds but I’ll say it nonetheless. I honestly feel like God led me to this book. It isn’t Christian and it isn’t even spiritual on the surface but its theme is rooted in a desire for Eden, a desire for heaven, and I’ve never craved heaven in my life. Until now. It made me take a hard look at my marriage, my kids, and my values.

What do I cherish?

How do I protect and cultivate those things? What am I choosing to do with this life? How deep am I willing to love? Have I stopped loving the beauty of God around me? 

“Our whole way of life is based upon these centers – upon family and place as one. The roots of our being grow in the soil of our alia. Family and place intermingled as one make that soil.”

Dorna, Islandia

This book left me heartbroken, for all the right reasons; craving for beauty, supernatural beauty. A desire for depth with my wife that goes beyond the shallow version of marriage that we’re sold by the world. I resurrected the fire for life, and being a Christian I took these things and submitted them before God and asked the Spirit to lead me in it. 

In my book, Thoughts of a Dying Worship Leader, I wrote about the pilgrim aspect of this life, and Islandia fleshed that thought out for me in a way I didn’t know I needed. 

I wouldn’t suggest this book to just anyone, but I would’ve loved to have read it at a few different stages in my life, and I know I’ll need to read it again. 

Life is beautiful, more than we care to recognize. 

This book was too moving and too random to be a coincidence. Don’t read this book unless you want your heart to break for all the right reasons. I don’t have one iota of regret about reading it, I look forward to the next time.

Thanks Ron and Janene.

May our lives share a tanrydoon together. 

If Islandia was a real place, what would I do? Does it matter if it isn’t real?