I kept waiting for the sky to fall, or Netti and Ian’s surrounding to crumble like a cardboard set.ĭespite a period of relative peace on the island, there is little food for the lower classes, which is where Netti and Ian find themselves, as well as the middle class. The absence of “time” and a series of surreal events give the novella a slightly eerie, supernatural feel. Familial war alliances, which led to the establishment of the Maltese class system, persist to the present day (a modern day, for sure, though a year or era is never specified). Netti continues drinking as it become clear she can’t outrun her demons simply by moving across the world.Ĭenturies of war and death influence the day-to-day lives of the Maltese. Ian’s ability to recite (unprovoked) tidbits and factoids about previous world wars-he spends a lot of his time in Malta listening to old war reels-ensures that decades-old horrors remain alive in the present. Weighing in at less than 90 tiny pages (pages that are six inches tall, to be exact), On the Island (released April 21) is the latest from Nouvella, an independent publishing house that specializes in novellas.Įlizabeth Kadetsky, whose stories and essays have been published in New England Review, Antioch Review, Glimmer Train and The New York Times, documents the swan song of Netti, an alcoholic single mother, who, along with her 11-year old son, Ian, flees New York City to the war-torn Mediterranean island of Malta to retreat from her most recent failed relationship and the temptation of the bottle.īut life in Malta doesn’t provide the dry relief Netti craves. It would be possible to write a review of On the Island At the Center of the Center of the World that comes out longer than the book itself. The latest from Nouvella sets a young mother’s struggles against the backdrop of a flailing island.

The island at the center of the world