BOMB ISLAND

External threats and internal tensions threaten a Georgia commune.

Set on a barrier island in Georgia, Hundley’s novel chronicles a young man’s coming-of-age and the fractious dynamics within a commune. The central character here is Fish, who “had been born in Atlanta sometime in the last fourteen years” and now lives on the titular island as part of a commune. Also present there are wild horses and a tiger named Sugar, and just offshore is the unexploded ordnance that gives the island its name and makes it a morbid tourist attraction. The members have all adopted new names; besides Fish, there’s also Reef, Whistle, and Nutzo, and sharing “a name story” with outsiders is frowned upon. Tensions ratchet up over the course of the novel, not least due to the presence of the aforementioned tiger, which attacks a stallion in the novel’s opening scene. Sugar isn’t the only threat: There’s an embittered local man named Derbier who periodically clashes with the commune, and whose daughter, Celia, forms a tentative connection with Fish. There’s also the matter of Nutzo’s apparent disappearance and a cache of homemade weapons he left behind, which suggests that the commune is becoming more frayed than any of its members would admit. It’s a taut novel that hints at its characters’ long histories, from commune founder Whistle being haunted by violence and intolerance to a flashback to a time when Reef was “in active sexual relationships with eleven people, all polyamorous women in middle age.” The book is unpredictable and often charming, but could use a bit more space to fully explore its complex character dynamics.

A look at several unconventional lives.