Island

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Darwin called the Galápagos archipelago "a little world within itself," unaffected by humans and set on its own evolutionary path - strange, diverse, and unique. Islands are repositories of unique cultures and ways of living, seed banks built up in relative isolation. Island is an archipelago of ideas, drawing from research and first-hand experience living, working, and traveling to islands as far afield as Madeira and Cape Verde, Orkney and Svalbard, the Aran Islands and the Gulf Islands, Hong Kong and Manhattan.

Islands have long been viewed as both paradise and prison - we project onto them our deepest desires for freedom and escape, but also our greatest fears of forced isolation. This book asks: what can islands teach us about living sustainably, being alone or coexisting with others, coping with uncertainty, and making do?

Island explores these and other questions and ideas, but is constructed above all from the stories and experiences gathered during a lifetime of island hopping.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

1. Introduction: Island Fever
2. Mourning (Vancouver Island, Summer 2021)
3. Escape (Porto Santo, Summer 2020)
4. Quarantine (Madeira, Spring 2020)
5. Holiday (Belle Î le, Summer 2019)
6. Longing (Sã o Vicente, Spring 2019)
7. Experiment (Eday, Fall 2017)
8. Darkness (Spitsbergen, Winter 2017)
9. Cities (Hong Kong, Spring 2016)
10. Nostalgia (Madeira, 2014-2017)
11. Secrets (Ireland, 1998-2000)
12. Pleasures (Ibiza, 1997)
13. Crossings (Vancouver Island-Hawaii, 1996-1997)
14. Rivers (Î le de Montré al, 1992-1996)
15. Imaginaries (Cougar Island, 1977-1980)
Coda: A packet of letters on Crete
Desert Island Discs: Eight songs about islands

Notes
Acknowledgements
Index