The Keeper by Marguerite Poland #review

Title: The Keeper
Author: Marguerite Poland
Publisher: Penguin Books, 2014

Every once in a while there’s a South African author whose name should be on everyone’s lips – and Marguerite Poland deserves a spot in that sphere. Where to begin … Her writing is pure magic, pure and simple, and in The Keeper, she nests story within story, drawing readers into the claustrophobic, wind- and wave-swept world that is the island where the bulk of the tale plays out.

We begin with Hannes Harker, the lighthouse keeper, who has fallen and is severely injured while automating the last lighthouse on the South African coast that requires this. The era of lighthouse keepers is over, and Hannes has his own painful memories with regard to this ending.

While recovering in hospital, he begins to unburden himself to nursing sister Rika, who takes on the role of focaliser trying to make sense of the mystery. We plunge deep into the past, to the tragedy of why Hannes’s mother drowned herself in a well, and also into the near-past where we meet Aletta, Hannes’s estranged wife. The lighthouse presides over everything, both lightgiver and beacon, and brooding mistress.

People cope with the isolated existence on the island in different ways. Their motivations for living there differ wildly. For some it’s an all-consuming vocation, as it is for Hannes and his father before him. For others it’s a prison sentence, to be endured. Others make the best of it, and find their coping mechanisms. All are twisted in some way by this encapsulated environment, trapped even.

Symbols abound, from the macabre badge of office represented by the great rusty shark hook to the delicate lighthouse sculpture made from shells painstakingly collected by gentle hands. Make of these images what you will – they are enduring.

But it’s not so much the setting and the tragedies of the players strutting the dismal stage Poland has set up, but also her exquisite use of language. Birds abound, and for those of you who’ve read Taken Captive By Birds, you’ll understand those moments when she adds this typical signature throughout The Keeper. But then there’s also her understanding of environment, of the ocean’s mercurial moods, that paint in broad brush strokes the essence of the setting. I was instantly transported and enthralled.

Poland paints a story told not so much by what is shared, but also that which is left unsaid. The ending, much like real life, leaves pieces unfinished, conclusions untold, that hurt, give hope and also leave a delicious ambiguity.

The fact that The Keeper won the 2015 Nielsen Booksellers’ Choice award comes as no surprise. The tale haunts me, and has made its way to my Top Reads for 2015 shelf.

Taking flight with Marguerite Poland's Birds

This interview with Marguerite Poland appeared in various local papers, and is now live on IOL.co.za. If you're looking for a perfect gift, then do consider picking up a copy of her Taken Captive By Birds. It has some of the most amazing illustrations I've seen in a long time.

Marguerite Poland is an author who’s known not only for her children’s books and adult fiction, but also her non-fiction. She co-wrote the well-received The Abundant Herds: Celebration of the Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People (Fernwood, 2003) with Professor David Hammond (illustrated by Leigh Voigt).

And last year saw the release of Taken Captive by Birds (Penguin) which offers readers a glimpse into her past, growing up in the rural Eastern Cape. Not only is the book a literary treat laced with nostalgia, but it is also lusciously illustrated by Craig Ivor.

Explaining how the book came into being, Poland relates: “I was in the middle of writing a novel but, due to family commitments, had too little time to sustain it.

“I decided to write something for my daughters – vignettes of childhood, things that meant something to me. I guess I have reached that age! Taken Captive by Birds is the result.”
 (Read rest of article here).