On the remote island of Merlank, shoes belonging to the recently dead are brought to the Ferryman so that he can shepherd their spirits across the sea to their final resting place. If they choose to linger instead of climbing the Broken Tower and leaving the earthly realm, they push at the edges of the veil that separates the living and the dead, causing destruction. Thirteen-year-old Milo is the Ferryman’s younger son. His older brother Leif will take up the mantle when their father passes: The Ferryman has always said that Milo is not suited to the role because he is too susceptible to emotions—his own, and the dead’s.
But when the Lord of Merlank’s daughter suddenly dies, the Lord is unwilling to let her go, and what begins as a peaceful negotiation for his daughter’s shoes turns deadly. The Lord’s guards murder the Ferryman and capture Leif, and Milo flees with the shoes, knowing that the burden of the dead has now fallen on him. With the Lord and his terrifying magicians in close pursuit, Milo sets sail for the Broken Tower, knowing that he must follow in his father’s imposing footsteps—but that he must also become his own version of the Ferryman.
Island of Whispers, author Francis Hardinge’s middle grade novella with drawings from children’s illustrator Emily Gravett, is a subtle, dreamlike fable about grief, letting go and carving your own path along heavily trodden ground. At only 120 pages, the story itself is brief, but far from lacking in depth. Hardinge writes with the deft, light touch of classic writers of fairy tales, her prose and imagery enchanting yet spare. She balances the novella’s weighty themes of denial and grief with a linguistic accessibility that makes the book feel welcoming for younger readers, while still appealing to a wide audience.
The story is illuminated by Gravett’s gorgeous black and white illustrations, which are reminiscent of Scandinavian woodblock prints or even Wanda Gág’s lithographs. The images bolster the out-of-time feeling that the rest of the story is imbued with, and add to the subtle magic that is woven throughout. Island of Whispers is a quiet book, but it’s also a resonant one; it would be wholly unsurprising to find it, decades from now, nestled on a shelf of worn and loved classics.
