Sentinel Island

Sentinel Island: A Novel

Located some 600 miles from the coast of India, Sentinel Island is the home of the last people entirely cut off from the modern world, the Sentinelese. No one knows where they come from, what language they speak, their beliefs. Only one thing is certain: for centuries they have violently rejected outsiders who set foot on their island, including Venetian travellers, British colonists, shipwrecked Chinese, Malaysian poachers, European monarchs, or American missionaries. Sentinel Island tells the story of this people and of Krish and Markus, two friends who have little in common other than their fascination with this forbidden island. One is an anthropologist of Indian origin in a badly fraught marriage to an American woman; the other an unmarried New York editor, heir to an enormous fortune built in the art market. Swept up in a grand adventure, Sentinel Island is the story of peoples in far-flung places, friendship, class relations, contemporary America, the gradual unravelling of an interracial marriage—and the story of globalization and those who attempt to escape it.

The Thousand Islands

The Thousand Islands are more than 1,800 islands located in 35 miles of the upper St. Lawrence River between Upstate New York and southeastern Ontario. During the latter half of the 19th century, the region evolved as a vacation destination, initially for Canadian and American urbanites drawn by the restorative powers of spectacular scenery and relaxed summer life. Tourism expanded rapidly, and by the early 1900s, the Thousand Islands boasted dozens of grand hotels, daily railroad connections to New York and Philadelphia, steamship service to Montreal and Toronto, innumerable sightseeing and guided fishing excursions, and the best that North Americas premier vacation spot could offer.

Vancouver Island