Elna Holst

In the Palm

Lucia Correa

3.5 Stars

One of the best opening lines I've ever read - "I AM DRUNK and about to chop my hand off." 

This is a novella about a woman who washes up on a tropical island shore. When she awakens she recognizes that her hand has symptoms of a necrotising infection and she knows she must chop her hand off if she is to survive. She has a pen knife and a couple of small hotel bottles of whiskey. She also cannot remember who she is and how she ended up on this tropical island. I can't really tell you too much more for it would best to discover this woman's fate as she does.

It is a good book, well worth the read. I enjoyed it. But maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I've read Robinson Crusoe or seen Tom Hank's movie Castaway? (Yeah, I know. I maybe the only one who hasn't seen it.) Unfortunately, I don't think having seen Blue Lagoon or Disney's Swiss Family Robinson helped. 

I subtracted half a star because I had a believably problem with a detail that bothered me to distraction and probably no one else. Nevertheless, I recommend this novella for anyone who enjoys an adventure and following a character discovering herself.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

Jude Silberfeld

“I am drunk and about to chop my hand off.” How is that for an opening sentence? The drunk and soon-to-be one-handed person is a woman but that’s about all either the reader or herself knows at first. She’s on a desert island but she has no idea how she got there nor, for that matter, who she is. After some time – time is a very abstract concept when you’re all alone on a desert island –, she’ll realise the island is not as deserted as she thought.

In the Palm is the most bizarre book I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever. It’s also funny and unexpectedly hot. The word that kept repeating in my mind as I was reading is “brilliant”. Everything in this novella is bloody brilliant. And kind of disturbing.

I felt as lost and disoriented as the main character for almost the whole time. Ms No Name (she’s pretty sure she’s a doctor) is smart and scared and talks to herself in a delightfully self-deprecating manner. The situation she finds herself in is terrifying yet I laughed a lot. And I have no idea how the author managed to convey so much sexiness despite all the squeamish-y stuff.

I mean, seriously, here you are, with two stranded characters who don’t really speak the same language, one of whom has probably not spoken at all in a terribly long time, the other has been forced to cut off her own hand in dreadful conditions, there’s sand and rain and mud and yet – yet! – there’s chemistry. A whole lot. Inadvertent chemistry at first then very purposeful and damn is it hot on this island!

I’m still stunned. This novella is probably not for everyone but it’s fabulous.

ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.

In the Palm

Reviews