List the details of Stephen Hundley's debut novel, Bomb Island, and some might wonder how a single book could possibly contain so many improbable elements: the atomic bomb accidentally dropped during a military simulation decades earlier; the found family--all with chosen names like Fish and Nutzo--who choose to live on Bomb Island off the coast of Savannah, Ga.; the bully who runs a local fishing charter; and oh, yeah, there's also a white tiger on the loose? In the hands of many emerging writers, this mélange might dissolve into an outrageous mess; instead, Bomb Island is outrageously good thanks to Hundley's revelatory character work and artful details.
Like all the island's residents, the tiger is there because of Whistle, known and trusted as mother, caretaker, lover, friend, or guide. Fish arrived when he was five, after Whistle saved him and his mother from the fire that destroyed their Atlanta home. "The other people who lived with Whistle said the same. She had saved them all from something." And while Whistle denies any particular powers, she shows them how to live: "not off the land, but gently tucked inside of it." Soon, however, the tiger threatens that gentle existence, and Fish, now 14, has to decide: Will he fold into the history of toxic masculinity and violence or heed Nutzo's simple advice to "Be thoughtful, Fish"? Fans of Southern writers with a penchant for outcasts and misfits will marvel at Fish. His is a terrible, beautiful story, and readers will equally hurt and hope for him. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian