Book Club - Ian Kemish’s Two Islands

About this episode

The episode discusses Ian Kemish's novel 'Two Islands', which explores themes of war crimes and personal refuge in a fictional setting.

Today for our book club I’m bringing you an intriguing new work of historical intrigue. Ian Kemish’s Two Islands Ian Kemish AM is a former Australian diplomat. His first book, The Consul, offered a personal perspective on Australia’s foreign affairs challenges. Two Islands is his first work of fiction. The background to the novel are the war crimes trials conducted in the aftermath of The Wars in The Balkans in the 1990’s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague involved international teams, including many Australians and has been the subject of numerous books exploring their ongoing impacts. Sharp listeners may recall Gretchen Shirm’s Out of the Woods last year which explored circumstances around the trials. The Two Islands of the title are Skarnsey and Thorkil’s Isle in Scotland’s Hebrides. It is there that Niko has fled on a desperate whim. There the residents are not unwelcoming of visitors and it is a world away from the violence he has seen and which he was due to testify about at the International Criminal Tribunal. Only now the past is threatening to catch up with Niko and he fears if he doesn’t run the violence will continue to…

Topics covered

• historical fiction
• war crimes
• Balkans
• diplomacy
• refuge
• international law

Keywords

• Ian Kemish
• Two Islands
• war crimes trials
• Balkans
• International Criminal Tribunal
• fiction
• refuge
• Scotland

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Books & works: Two Islands, The Consul, Out of the Woods

Places: Skarnsey, Thorkil’s Isle, Australia, Scotland, Hebrides

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