2011 books

19) Latifa al-Zayyat, The Owner of the House, 1994
Samia's husband Mohamed is a fugitive political prisoner on the run from the Egyptian police, and as she joins him in hiding, with all the necessary games to conceal identities, her struggle becomes an internal as well as an external, one leaving her with the possibility of being doubly enslaved. This is a novel of metaphor, mostly concerning the parallels of her situation with an individual's relationship to the state. The narrative occasionally becomes a little disconnected whenever Samia looks inward, giving us, in effect, two stories that have blurred boundaries. It's a successful novel in getting across its message of escape from both mental and physical oppressions – relevant still to what happened to Egypt earlier this year – but perhaps less successful in terms of narrative, indeed I found myself having to re-read previous paragraphs to recap what appeared to be minor points that were in fact major ones. The Owner of the House requires some close reading to be best understood, and the long introduction is also necessary to ground the story in context, which is partly that of al-Zayyat's own life.

And with one click, everything fell into place

A need-to-know for the Fat Controller, and something many have wondered: where exactly is Sodor, home of Thomas the Tank Engine? Pretty much where I suspected it to be, ie. in the Irish Sea connected by bridge to the English mainland.

Fictional British islands

Okay, further to my previous post, here's what I have so far in my search for fictional British islands. Thanks to those who've suggested some... anyone know of more?

Armorel
A fictional Channel Island based on Sark, from Jerrard Tickell's novel Appointment with Venus.

Popinsay
A fictional island from Eric Linklater's children's fantasy novel Pirates in the Deep Green Sea. Not to be confused with the Orkney Island Copinsay.

Qwghlm
From Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. As I haven't read any of these books I don't know where it's meant to be located and can't find this info online, but I can tell you it's pronounced Tagum.

Scylla
One of the Scilly Isles, from the 1989 British film When the Whales Came, based on Michael Morpurgo's book Why the Whales Came (which does not feature a fictional Scilly Isle).

Shell Island
A fictional island from Dennis W. Boreham's children's novel Prisoners of the Sea.

Sodor
From the Railway Series of books by Rev. W. Awdry, situated between the Isle of Man and Cumbria. Looking at the Wiki article, I'm also interested to see Sodor has a conlanguage, 'Sudric' - I wonder how far (or how little) it was actually developed. (Conlanguages are another interest of mine).

St. Gregory
From the TV series Island at War, a fictional amalgam (and replacement) of both Jersey and Guernsey.