The Wattle Island Book Club is the fourth novel by Australian author, Sandie Docker. Now in her eighties, Anne Sato has lived most of her life on Wattle Island. Her decision to restart the Wattle Island Book Club will, she is sure, meet with criticism, but it is born of a desire heal the hurting that ensued after their last meeting, seven years earlier. Her deepest desire is for her grandson to begin properly living again before she departs this life.

Anne’s call to the Port Maddison Regional Library is taken by Grace Elliott, who expertly manages the many clubs for which the library caters; she efficiently sends out a tub of books on the supply ship. When, on her follow up with Anne, the reaction is somewhat equivocal, Grace proposes attending their next meeting to facilitate. A visit to an island will fit nicely into the bucket lists that Grace is determinedly attempting to tick off.

As an artist, Anne finds her go-to for relaxation and de-stressing is to paint, but lately her imagination takes her to long-ago memories: when thirteen-year-old Anne Webb arrives on Wattle Island in 1947 to live with an aunt she’s never met, she’s clutching the one book she managed to grab from her mother’s bookshelf: Anne of Green Gables. There are no books in Aunt Bess’s spartan little cottage, nor does the island school’s library boast an extensive range.

Anne is grateful when Jeremiah Allen, the deckhand on the Seafarer, agrees to bring books from the mainland library to feed the voracious reading appetite that is her parents’ legacy. It’s not something other islanders of her age share. It sets her apart, as does her befriending of the new deckhand, Tadashi, whose love of literature matches her own. But what she wants most is to return to the city.

Grace is completely enchanted by Wattle Island and its residents, a little destabilised by Anne’s gorgeous, brooding grandson but eagerly anticipating the book club gathering. Solving a mystery has been on Grace’s bucket lists ever since she was seven, and she can’t help being drawn in to the mystery surrounding the seven-year hiatus in the Wattle Island Book Club’s gatherings: an empty book shop, and a pervasive sadness amongst the townspeople. But it’s clear from the reactions of some that her interest is not entirely welcome…

This is a wonderfully romantic story that champions libraries and reading, and it is difficult not to fall in love with these characters from the outset, and become invested in their fates. Docker easily captures both the island’s village atmosphere and the post-war mindset of the Australian public: the rampant sexism, xenophobia and homophobia characteristic of the era.

Her descriptions of the art and sculpture will have readers craving a peek into the studios, and she gives her characters some wise words and insightful observations: “Life was what it was. Always had been. No one was in control, despite the human race being rather adept at fooling itself into believing it was” and “We can’t move on from our scars. They are part of who we are. It’s only when we accept that, that we can be whole again” are examples. From Sandie Docker the reader is always guaranteed a superb Australian-flavoured feel-good read.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by the author.