New Novel Q&A: The Island of Last Things

Contributor Emma Sloley talks to us about the release of her new novel, The Island of Last Things. Emma’s story “Sugartown” appears in our 75th anniversary issue.

Shenandoah: Can you tell me the story of The Island of Last Things: When did you start working on it? What were some of your preoccupations as you were writing it? How did you know when you had a promising concept on your hands?

Emma Sloley: I started work on the book several years ago, after deciding I wanted to write a kind of hopeful dystopian tale about a zoo at the end of the world. I had been reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s incredible and disturbing work of nonfiction The Sixth Extinction, and thinking a lot about what it feels like to live in the Anthropocene amid all this loss. It was one of those ideas that felt exciting and brimming with possibility right from the start…Alcatraz Island as the setting for the last zoo in the world? It immediately suggested a rich and sinister world in which my characters would need to fight like hell to find the better world they seek. When I first mentioned it my screenwriter husband—who is an incredibly talented writer and one-man brilliant-idea factory—and his eyes lit up with enthusiasm, I knew I had a keeper.

S: How would you describe your writing process especially given your background as a travel writer and your experience with your last book? How do you think you have grown and changed as a writer over the course of your career from writing freelance to now publishing your second novel?

ES: I used to have a very scattershot approach to writing fiction, but over the years I’ve become much more disciplined and these days I wouldn’t ever consider writing a novel without outlining first. I think my experience as a journalist helped inform this habit, because structure and format and the need to organize a story into coherent parts (lede, nut graph, body of the story, conclusion) are so important when writing a journalistic piece—you can’t really employ stream of consciousness when you’re writing for a consumer magazine. So some of that rubbed off, certainly. Style-wise, I’m inclined to be a prose maximalist, but I’m trying to rein in that tendency! To get in out of scenes quicker and rely less on metaphor and long descriptions. I genuinely love the idea that I’m going to be working on improving my craft for the rest of my life. That’s exhilarating to me.

S: The thematic influence of climate change and its dystopian aftermath is evident in both of your novels. What significance does this hold for you, and how do you feel your work is especially relevant and poignant in the current literary and environmental atmosphere?

ES: I think we’re close to the term “climate fiction” becoming obsolete, because climate change is no longer a theme we can choose to include or leave out of contemporary stories, but the backdrop of our lives. There’s a lovely quote that crops up a lot on social media (attributed to various people, but the origin seems to be a user called @PerthshireMags): “Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it.”

Increasingly, the fiction I’m most drawn to occupies the space between literary and speculative, mimetic stories set in worlds shifted ever-so-slightly from the familiar, where the consequences of our current crises are playing out in both dramatic and mundane ways. This space fascinates me both as a reader and a writer. I love exploring the ways in which characters locate and hold onto their humanity and joy in the midst of calamity—my debut, Disaster’s Children, began this exploration, and The Island of Last Things deepens and complicates those desires. Where do you excavate for happiness in a hostile world? My characters spend their lives trying to answer this question.

S: Is there a passage you feel is a good representative of the book or do you have a current favorite? Can you give us a taste of something you're especially proud of?

ES: I’m very partial to this one, in which my main characters, zookeepers Camille and Sailor, are wandering Alcatraz at night and finding beauty in the dystopian reality of their lives:

The island had always felt sinister at night, but I could see its beauty now as well, how it was both fragile and tough. You could hear the wind and the waves much better at night too, when the day’s tasks weren’t clamoring in your head. Just off the path, Sailor pointed out a tiny shrub clinging to a rock. It looked so small and solitary, separated by all those watery miles from its tree kin. There was something so noble about its determination to survive. Or maybe “futile” is a better word.

“I feel sorry for it,” I said, bending down to stroke its spiny leaves.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” said Sailor. “It will outlive us.” Her tone was casual but the words made me shiver.

I had always thought there wasn’t time for beauty anymore. That there was something frivolous about it—the pursuit of it, the mindless worship of it as laid out in the old movies we liked to watch. I had thoroughly internalized the notion that usefulness was the only metric of whether something had value. A carabiner was useful. A multitool was useful. Schedules were useful, as were cages and bars. Tranquilizer darts were regrettable but useful. A flower could be useful but only because it might provide food or diversion for a bird or animal, not because it was beautiful. Its beauty was incidental and easily dismissed. But then Sailor arrived, and I realized that even the smallest sliver of beauty matters and can be useful. Not because it makes a difference on some cosmic level, but because it quiets our restless hearts for a moment. It whispers to us that joy is still possible.

S: I'm curious abourt some logistics: How did you come up with the title? What about the cover art? What was it like working with Flatiron on publishing this book?

ES: Titles are hard! That said, this one was relatively easily arrived at. I wanted the title to convey enough of the story’s vibe (danger, extinction, an island setting) while still allowing for mystery. The cover art is by the incredible designer Keith Hayes, and I thank my lucky stars every day that my publisher invited him to pitch on this. When my team sent me the mock-up for my thoughts, I couldn’t believe how striking and haunting and perfect it was…I may have gotten teary. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have such great partners in Flatiron—they’ve been a dream to work with, from my stellar editor, Caroline Bleeke, to the PR and marketing team. Putting out a book takes a village, and mine is a hugely supportive and talented one.

S: Have you been able to tour or do any events, or do you have any plans to travel and promote? What's been your favorite moment in terms of connecting with readers?

ES: I’m actually on book tour right now, in LA! (Or as I’m calling it, mini book tour, because it’s only three stops.) I have events in LA and San Francisco, and will be one of the authors appearing at the Texas Book Festival in November, all of which I’m very excited about! The reception so far has already been so wonderful and touching…the book has already generated great enthusiasm from booksellers, social media influencers, and publications, and it continues to be a thrill to see that cover pop up in various places. A few early readers have reached out on social media to tell me how much the book meant to them, and it might sound like a cliché but the idea that a stranger somewhere in the world might find your book, that these words you’ve written might mean something to them, feels like a kind of magic.