How is Mallow Island described in the novel, Other Birds?

Mallow Island, a coastal community, is described as having a kitschy, seaside appearance, which is populated by unique beauties, such as the native mallow plant and the local dellawisps, small, sparrow-like birds that populate the town’s brugmansia trees. Mallow Island’s remove from the continent helps imbue it with a sleepy, surreal, out-of-time feeling that dovetails nicely with the novel’s themes of ghosts, magic, memory, and recovery. It is charming and enigmatic, mysterious and fraught, and its sleepy exterior belies a complex, checkered history and great deal of anguish on the part of its residents.