Nine Island (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781936787128)

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016

"Nine Island is a crackling incantation, brittle and brilliant and hot and sad and full of sideways humor that devastates and illuminates all at once." --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies

Nine Island is an intimate autobiographical novel, told by J, a woman who lives in a glass tower on one of Miami Beach's lush Venetian Islands. After decades of disaster with men, she is trying to decide whether to withdraw forever from romantic love. Having just returned to Miami from a monthlong reunion with an old flame, "Sir Gold," and a visit to her fragile mother, J begins translating Ovid's magical stories about the transformations caused by Eros. "A woman who wants, a man who wants nothing. These two have stalked the world for thousands of years," she thinks.

When not ruminating over her sexual past and current fantasies, in the company of only her aging cat, J observes the comic, sometimes steamy goings-on among her faded-glamour condo neighbors. One of them, a caring nurse, befriends her, eventually offering the opinion that "if you retire from love . . . then you retire from life."

Author: Jane Alison
ISBN-10: 1936787121
ISBN-13: 9781936787128
Publisher: Catapult
Language: English
Published: 09/13/2016
Pages: 244
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/20/2016
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2016
Booklist 08/01/2016 pg. 27
Library Journal 11/15/2016 pg. 84