Hy Brasil by Margaret Elphinstone

Hy Brasil

by Margaret Elphinstone

After fraudulently winning a writing competition, Sidony Redruth is sent by her editor to write the first-ever travel book on Hy Brasil, a near-mythical island somewhere in the Atlantic, whose very existence has been a matter of debate as late as the nineteenth century.
Elphinstone's plot takes the island location as its starting point, throws in some old-fashioned piracy, a lost treasure, modern-day drug smuggling, political intrigue, an active volcano and a tragic love affair. Told through Sidony's notes for her book, Hy Brasil has all the elements of an adult adventure story, but it is also a contemporary thriller with literary influences ranging from The Tempest and Treasure Island to Moby-Dick.

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

3 of 5 stars

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Not really my kind of book, it's a strange mix of fantasy and slice-of-life novel and it's about somewhere I often describe my accent as coming from but it didn't excite me, I was happy to leave it in work and read it in snippets.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 31 August, 2016: Finished reading
  • 31 August, 2016: Reviewed