Seriously love the family and history dynamics of the book! Strongly considering for my bookclub since the ending left us with a lot to discuss about Senna!

Written like interconnected short stories vs one continuous novel, I really enjoyed the exploration of class and race. Very beautifully written, and lush in descriptions, I enjoyed this unique piece of fiction.

This book took me a long time to read; not because it was bad, but the pacing of the book felt reflective of the flowing, strangely outside-of-time way that the author describes time passing in Madagascar. The book is atmospheric and lyrical, and the descriptions really paint a picture of a place that I know very little about. I enjoyed learning about the community on Naratrany (a place that it took me way too long to figure out was fictional), how it changed over time, and the impact of race, wealth, and colonialism on the community, Shay, and her family.

I do want to say that while I enjoyed the book on the whole, I feel that the synopsis led me to expect something different. Red Island House is not as much a novel with an overarching narrative, but rather a series of short stories detailing vignette from the main character (Shay)'s life over time, especially the part spend in Madagascar. The themes stay consistent, and are developed throughout the book, but I wouldn't say that there is an overarching plot; instead, we simply get to watch as Shay and Naratrany change over time, and reflect upon the influences that brought them to that point.

This book was phenomenal. I was so immersed in the main character Shay’s life, feelings, emotions, and decisions. The author presented her as a wise woman in control of her emotions as well as intuitive and strong. She was a fabulous hero in this epic tale across decades. Set in Italy and Madagascar, the author dives deep into the cultures of both places, as well as Shay’s native USA. I found this facet to be most interesting in the storyline as well as Shay’s ability to reason across those cultural norms.

Red Island House is a luxuriously eloquent read, one that explores the fraught racial and cultural boundaries between the indigenous and the ultra-rich Europeans and Westerners who flock to the land to "get away." From the casting of indigenous spells to getting swept up in the lives of the Madagascar natives, we get to watch Shay (a beautiful, poised, and educated African-American woman) navigate these social and caste-based boundaries as she becomes deeper and deeper entrenched in the island culture. I loved seeing a work like this written by a black woman with a black female heroine. It took this book to a place I've never seen before - more than a breezy island beach read, but not a West Indian or African-based narrative either; more than a story of a black woman married to a white man but an American-born affluent woman of color who is the mistress of an opulent home as she both code switches and language switches. It was beautiful to read, thought-provoking to behold and fully engrossing. Sakalavian culture and atmosphere oozes from every page, and I was so pulled into the narrative that I could faintly feel the sweat on my own brow every time I closed the book on this tropical cultural wonderland.

Andrea Lee, a National Book Award–nominated writer, usually takes her characters abroad. And in “Red Island House,” Lee’s protagonist is Shay Gilliam, a Black professor of literature who’s from California, and marries a wealthy husband from Italy. And they spend their half their time at beautiful vacation home in Madagascar.

Except the red house never feels like home. And living in a small village puts Shay in a precarious position. One after the other.

Andrea Lee writing a novel composed of short stories, stories that could stand on their own as a complete work, but together would tell a longer story.

It took me a while to get into the book, but I grew fond of Shaw and her friendship with Bertine la Grande. The writing is vivid and beautiful. Each section of the book is written like a short story. It weaves together themes of race, classism, colonialism, greed, gender roles, identity, marital sacrifices and more.

Special thanks to Scribner for giving me access to an advanced reader copy, via NetGalley. I also downloaded and listened to the Simon & Schuster audiobook, narrated by the extremely talented actress, Bahni Turpin.

So, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. The structure of the book made it feel like I was continually ready a new story. Though each of the sections could probably be a stand alone short, they each built upon the overall plot of the story, Shay’s life both on and off the island.

I think my favorite section was the first one titled The Packet War. The mystery, the magic, the all knowing Bertine, this section set a high bar for the rest of the book. Unfortunately the book as a whole fails to meet the high standard set by the fist section, but a few individual sections came close. The Rivals, Sister Shadow, and Elephants’ Graveyard are also on my list of fav sections.

Lee did an excellent job of crafting unique, interesting characters. They were all so vivid and I didn’t have a problem imagining them in real life. The settings were equally vivid. Reading her lush descriptions made me feel like I was there on the island, baking under the sun and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited about this one but struggled through the foreign names, phrases in other languages, and the many different locations/histories of Madagascar. I think this one holds potential with great themes of love and transformation, marriage, and belonging, but it wasn’t one that worked for me personally.

I read a recent New Yorker interview with Andrea Lee, and she mentioned specifically, her taking on the self-imposed challenge of writing a novel composed of short stories, stories that could stand on their own as a complete work, but together would tell a longer story. I often struggle with them as a reader because I want more. But, what Lee does is incredible! While it started a little slow for me, once it got going, it got going. We get a lengthy, intricate, and complete narrative. We could also walk away from each story, content with well-developed characters and fascinating plot-lines. But, why would we want to?

This story gave me major Mexican Gothic vibes. It’s so atmospheric, this world that Lee is able to invite us into. The colors, the sounds, the smells. It also weaves a tale of dark, controlling forces causing folks to act outside of themselves. It’s a suffocating force, quite literally, it’s a confusing force, it’s a potentially deadly force. It doesn’t require too great a leap to name it as white supremacy and colonialism, the true horror.

At the same time, the way that Shay, our main character, interacts with her place in everything is so poignant. She’s a Black American, raised in the Bay Area, with a lot of fancy degrees, who marries an uneducated but successful Italian businessman, and lives her life between Italian contexts and the Red Island House. Her time as a Black woman in Africa is not simple (which, of course), as she works through the distinctions between the West African contexts she might have identified with as the general origins of her people, as a descendent of American slavery and this East African community with a complex history all its own, one that she has a more difficult time finding her own history in, even as she knows a shared history of Blackness, of conquest, of colonialism and slavery. Shay’s journey to reconcile her various identities and choices is a relatable one for those of us who are navigating various intersections of our own.

All in all, it’s well-written and interesting, and I recommend!

This is hands down the weirdest book I've read so far in 2021. Lee's writing is colorful and descriptive, yet also at times feels deceptive, as though she's creating chaos in these characters lives where there is none, or vice versa. The times when she creates a feeling of calm when there are some seriously odd things happening is almost scarier.

Shay spends most of the year in Italy, teaching as a professor the works of Black Americans, sharing a fraction of her life with them and trying to help them understand how much pain persists in her home culture. The other third of the year is spent in Madagascar where her Italian husband Senna has built them a magnificent vacation home call the Red House. Her encounters on the island are never usual, and often something sinister feels at play.

I enjoyed the unique writing style and pacing. I struggled with the plot, as each chapter reads like a small excerpt of a larger story, a piece of an interaction that readers are left trying to make sense of in the context of the larger book as a whole. The sinister feelings are often under the surface of each interaction, and I was constantly expecting something bad just around the corner. However, I struggled to find character development in the pages. Shay exhibits the most, but even still, it seemed more like she was drifting through each interaction as her marriage with Senna struggles along than that she was developing new insights from her time on the island.

Set in the late 1990s, 𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚, by Andrea Lee, is fashioned as a novel about foreigners in Madagascar. Over the span of 20 years, the novel tracks the movements, the travels, and the experiences of outsiders Shay and Senna as they obtrude on the island a few months out of the year. Lee’s writing is clearly infused with a mix of languages, identities,and cultures throughout the narrative and shows her talented range and lyrical abilities to attend to imagery and characters. 𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 is centered around the fictive, eclectic Malagasy Island where readers can find a piece of paradise if they look close enough.

I looked for a novel. This book works more like a collection of short stories about characters that enter the Red House. In the acknowledge section, Lee even states: “It began as a series of stories seen from different points of view and set in different parts of Madagascar, based on notes from my travels to the country over the last few decades.” It’s clear, Lee. It doesn’t function as a novel and it shows.

I looked for a better read. I found that the summary offered for the book was misleading because the narrative did not fulfill its promise to provide “a provocative paradise full of magic and myth.” The book was a slow, dull read. Also, you’ll need an Italian and French dictionary to understand most words throughout. I almost DNFed the book. It only picked up near the end.

I looked for a steady theme. Lee offers readers a multitude of concerns to have qualms with in a debut novel. It’s frankly just too much to digest. She is overwriting, too, and she doesn’t have to. Her talent is there. I’d definitely read a “real” novel by her in the future.

If I had a physical copy of 𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚, I’d definitely pass it on because it held no magic for me.

Red Island House is a well-crafted story upon an even more beautiful and majestic setting. Shay is a professor who falls in love and marries a rich Italian businessman, Senna. When they meet, he is building his dream vacation home on an iconic beach in the island of Madagascar. She’s conflicted and challenged in this new setting as she searched for her place among her husband, his transgressions, and the staff of the home.

It's obvious that Angela Lee has a command of language as her descriptions of Madagascar are so rich and robust. I wish the characters were better developed, as I got a sense they seemed rather emotionally removed and impersonal. I was hoping for Shay to really open up and expand as the novel continued, but it didn't quite do it for me.

Thank you #netgalley and #scribner for my advanced copy.

What a beautifully written book! I read this slowly, savoring the descriptive language and the evocation of the tropical island Naratrany.
It is almost a series of short stories, though Shay and the Red House are main characters throughout. Major themes are race, class, neo-colonialism, and sex work in places of poverty.
The author makes clear in the acknowledgments that this book is about Madagascar from a foreigner's eye. Shay, the main character, is an African American professor who married an Italian businessman 20 years her senior, and who builds the Red House for himself and for her early in their marriage. Shay then constantly struggles with the in between-ness of being a Black woman who is the "lady of the house" in Africa where a very colonial lifestyle is still in full swing.

The book comes full circle by the end and left me pondering for quite some time.

I also had to look up a few words which NEVER happens so I enjoyed that!

The author lives in Italy and I got hints of Ferrante style writing throughout the book as well, though the author is American. I loved the book and hope that readers who enjoy amazing prose find this and enjoy it.

I liked this book. First of all, the cover is so beautiful. That’s what first caught my eye with this book. Yea, yea, don’t judge a book by its cover, buuuuuut sometimes I do...and it pays off!
I will say, this book was hard to get into at first. The first two chapters are heavy with backstory. Since the setting is in Madagascar, and I don’t much about the country or the culture there, I struggled a little bit. Once I got through those first two chapter, it started picking up for me.

A black woman, Shay, who is a college professor marries a rich Italian guy. Shay becomes the mistress of the red island house: A newly-build manor in Madagascar. The book covers about 20 years of their life on and off of the island. It took a while to get used to the writing style that accommodates this span of time in the book. It feels a bit like it jumps around, but it’s happening in a linear fashion. I liked that the chapters weren’t too long, and that this was the way it unraveled because some chapters are way more interesting than others.

Honestly, this is a strange and beautiful book. It’s not for every kind of reader, but if you’re looking for something Different and interesting, tryt(is one out!

Now and then I come upon a novel so artfully written, so evocative of a place, and so packed with ideas that I want to continue thinking about it rather than move on to another book. Andrea Lee’s The Red Island House is one of those books.

Set in Madagascar and revolving around the dream vacation home built by Senna, a wealthy Italian businessman, for himself and his new African American wife, a literature professor and translator named Shay, Red Island House is comprised of a series of short stories occurring over the years of the couple’s marriage. Time after time, they leave their busy Milan life behind to spend time on their beach estate in one of the world’s poorest countries. During an interview with New Yorker, Lee spoke of her novel’s unusual but highly successful structure: “I see the form as a private challenge, a sort of balancing act; each story must be satisfying on its own but also be a bead on a string that joins it with others.” Each of those beads on a string focuses on Shay’s encounters with the diverse people populating Madagascar and sparking her thoughts about social class, race, and neo-colonialism. As a wealthy black intellectual in a country where powerful whites have traditionally dominated poor, uneducated natives, she is caught between cultures and forced to ponder what she experiences personally and observes around her.

In the opening story, “The Packet War,” newlywed Shay arrives at the house her husband insists he built for her but in which she has had no say. A stranger in a strange home and land, she continues to have no voice in the goings on, and a good relationship with her husband disintegrates. Senna had been warned about the need for, but refused to follow the custom of, throwing a housewarming party for the local natives, and ignoring local customs could result in evil curses. Only the native housekeeper, Bertine la Grande has a solution for Shay’s unhappiness, and it involves a clandestine visit to a village sorcerer. Readers who wonder about the story’s title, “The Packet War,” will understand by story’s end.

The third story, “Blondes,” opens in a beauty shop as Shay undergoes a slow-paced pedicure and manicure. What seems like an unpromising beginning changes as Caroline la Blonde walks in the door. A beautiful black woman with a reputation for captivating wealthy European men, Caroline has come to have her blond sewn-in hair extensions removed, her own hair trimmed and redyed to match, and the extensions reattached. As Shay’s feet soak in a plastic pan, her mind wanders back to her California childhood, to her encounters with blond classmates, to the various ways she styled her own black curly head over the years, and the significance of being blond in Madagascar. She thinks of Helle, an elderly blond German widow, who frequently visited the red island house and whom Shay viewed as a remnant of the past, a white woman forever trapped in the colonialist mentality. She watches Caroline, the “blond” black woman, who has made her fortune from European men, and observes her domineering interaction with the cowed Frenchman who comes to pay the beauty shop and to help her into the car awaiting outside.

These are only brief look at two of the beads that make up Andrea Lee’s insightful novel. An American permanently living in Italy, Lee and her husband have frequently traveled to Madagascar where she has experienced first-hand the types of people and situations she brings to life through her words—the natives, the outsiders, and the friction between them. In her New Yorker interview, she remarks, “I long ago dubbed this phenomenon “paradise twisted,” and I chose to illustrate it in a series of stories, each of which sheds a different light on the people and place.”

My thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and Andrea Lee for an advance reader copy.

"There are countries you visit that lay hold of you and don't let go..."

I have a soft spot for immersive literary fiction, especially when it has a heavy global influence. Introduce me to the things that are unique and beautiful in another culture; give me space to ruminate on important social themes; and top it off with an enchantingly-detailed atmosphere that makes me feel like I'm actually there, and it's sure to be a hit for me.

"Madagascar has its own fabulously complex identity, and is not to be taken lightly."

Enter Red Island House. Set in a oceanside village of Madagascar, Andrea Lee masterfully wields her literary palette to paint you right into the lush island landscape. I could close my eyes and picture exactly the crashing indigo waves rolling over coral beaches; the bamboo huts nestled among rice paddies; the cane fields rustling in the ocean breeze.

"Mystery lives under this moon."

The story follows Shay, a Black American professor living abroad. Shay is poised, kind, well-educated, multi-lingual, and highly intellectual; her husband Senna is her opposite in every way. He is Italian, several years her senior, and very wealthy, with a bold, brash, arrogant personality. They spend long stretches of time each year at The Red House, their plantation-style vacation home in Madagascar.

"If you want to leave him, you'll know the right time. You can't leave Madagascar, though. Not after all these years."

Red Island House chronicles Shay's life, relationships, and experiences in Madagascar over the course of two decades, as she wrestles with the discomfort of being a Black plantation mistress, hurts in her marriage, and the loss of a dear friend.

"In this country, whatever happens close to you - under your roof, say - becomes part of you, though you may not realize it at the time.

Admittedly, the story progresses slowly, through series of rather disjointed "sections" (that read more like short stories than actual novel chapters). I struggled to stay engaged, and to connect with Shay as deeply as I connected with the setting. Despite some issues with pacing and character development, Lee does an admirable job of addressing themes like privilege, colonialism, race, marriage, and betrayal. A strong 4-star read for lovers of dense, culturally-rich literary fiction!

"Light and darkness, like wealth and poverty, like foreigner and native-born, are indisseverably joined to each other."

——

A huge thank-you to Andrea Lee, Scribner, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

——

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This was such a unique and compelling story. I would describe this as told in a series of vignettes, that are all inter-connected to this island and this house. I loved this structure. The writing style was lyrical and engaging. Some vignettes I was more interested in than others, but overall this was a great story. I loved the idea and themes of outsiders coming to an island and land and using it as their own (and what that means, their treatment of the island's native people, respecting and disrespecting culture, etc). Highly recommend.

I wanted to love this book but for me it read like a collection of short stories that I couldn’t quite connect with.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this advanced copy!

I was really excited to receive an advanced copy of this book. The description of it being a story of an American woman moving to Madagascar grabbed me right away. I know little of Madagascar and was excited to read more about it. However, this was a DNF for more. I made it about 25% in and had to put it down. The pacing was way too slow for my taste and seemed very disjointed. I also felt like Shay was a very hard character to connect with. I do believe that Lee is a very talented writer and I look forward to trying more of her work. She writes about very timely and important themes.

This was my first read by Andrea Lee so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I was looking for a book that told me something about Madagascar, it's culture, beliefs, and it's people. True it would be through the lense of an African American woman leading a life of luxury on the island, adding some complexity to the story. However, this is more of a story about the ups and downs of marriage, a woman being consumed to an extent by that marriage, and many small short stories to pull the reader into the life at this house. The way the author writes is very descriptive, but it feels like I'm sitting in a room and she is telling me all these stories. Emphasis on the tell, I don't feel like I'm in the room seeing these stories for the most part. I didn't feel drawn to these characters and because of the writing (at least for me) there was no chance to really get to know them and grow attached to them. There was hardly any dialogue on top of this, internal or external, and this book helped me realize how much I like good dialogue or any really. Also, there are some really large time jumps that leaves the story feeling a bit disjointed.

Overall, if you're looking for a book with some marriage drama, commentary about social class and race, and a plot that meanders through decades, you may really enjoy this. However, if you're really attracted to the ghost aspect or a vibrant look at Madagascar, I would say look elsewhere.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with an eARC of this book. However, all thoughts and opinions in the review are my own.