BR: Cold Skin (Albert Sanchez Pinol)

Amazon Link: Cold Skin

The back cover reads:

We are never truly far from those we hate. For this very reason, we shall never be truly close to those we love. An appalling fact, I knew it well enough when I embarked. But some truths deserve our attention; others are best left alone.

On a desolate island at the end of the earth a young man discovers there are things more frightening than solitude.

This book was a quick read, enthralling from start to finish, disturbing and haunting. The writing is solid, eloquent and beautiful and I do it little justice by reviewing the book close on two months after having completed it.

The protagonist is a young man who takes on a role as a weather official on an uninhabited Antarctic island far away from any shipping routes or rescue should events turn sour. He is set down by a sea captain who is also there to collect his predecessor, Gruner, except the man is a slobbering, jabbering, semi-naked idiot, senseless and hostile. The captain leaves both men on the island; the deranged Gruner in the lighthouse and the (unnamed) protagonist in a timber hut on the other side of the island.

All is well until nightfall when, from the waves comes creatures that are reptilian in appearance and treacherously homicidal. Unaware of the danger and entirely unprepared, the protagonist survives the first attack with a mix of sheer will and dumb luck. He seeks out Gruner's help, knowing that the other man has weapons and protection in the lighthouse, but his attempt to seek sanctuary is violently rebuffed.

Only when Gruner's secret alliance with one of the reptilian females, Aneris, is revealed, does the protagonist bargain his safety by threatening the other man's 'mate'. Earning himself an unsteady alliance, he shelters in the lighthouse and works with Gruner to stave off attacks by the creatures, which they come to know as Situaca's, a sub-human lifeform.

A complex relationship develops between the two men and Aneris and later with the children of the Situaca who come onto the island in between attacks. The protagonist attempts to establish an alliance with the creatures, recognising that they demonstrate human-like traits and the capability for compassion toward each other. Gruner, however, is unable to appreciate them as anything more than vile enemies and sets off a reaction of violence and brutality that goes on and on for nights on end, wearing the men down and decimating the island.

At the end of the book, only the protagonist is left to greet the sea captain upon his return a year later. By this time all sanity has left and, instead of leaving as any sane man would do or at the very least warning the new weather official of the fate that awaits him, the protagonist stays and takes on the dead Gruner's role -- that of a deranged maniac who disallows the new weather official access to the lighthouse, the only structure on the island that affords shelter from the murderous creatures.

This book was enjoyable and well written, if not somewhat differnet from what I usually read.

Rating: **** out of five.