Structure

Lucy Irvine divides her memoir into four main sections, which she calls Phases, comprising thirteen chapters. Each phase is named with a variation of a gerund phrase plus the word ‘away’, such as Getting Away for phase one and Turning Away for phase three, while chapters are titled with words and phrases related to key concepts and events occurring within them. Irvine structures the first half of her nonfiction narrative towards a climactic turning point with the first visitation of the Badu Islanders in Chapter 8’s, Appearances, while maintaining the main emotional conflict between Lucy and G until its resolution in Chapter 11. Once the intervention of their island neighbors saves Lucy and G from starvation, dehydration and infection, the brute struggle for survival that set the patterns of their life on Tuin is lifted.

Yet, the sexual tension remains and the stakes for Lucy have not lowered...