In their dwelling is a machine which, every 8 hours, dispenses a pill to keep them safe from the toxic atmosphere on the island, rendering them unable to explore the wider terrain. As time has gone on and they have developed a degree of self-sufficiency, the couple have also noticed that supply drops have become irregular and subsequently stopped and abandoned boats have started to wreck themselves on the island. How well readers respond to this novel will depend on how far they are prepared to tolerate an accumulating fuzziness around the facts. Interesting then that Watson’s proof title for the book was ‘Not All that Is Hidden is Lost’ referencing the Hemingway theory again, where hidden could be taken to mean the future and lost being loss in a physical and emotional way. I would have liked a little more explanation as to why these rules had come into existence and also how the punishment system was supposed to work, as well as a little more information about the pills.

You never really learn anything about the outside society so you have to just imagine a future population controlled civilization also subject to the poisonous effects of climate change.Does he like what’s going on in the world (at the time of writing Metronome it was the pandemic; at the time of writing this review, there is war in the Ukraine).

The author seems to want to say something without saying it but not even hinting at what it might be.

Metronome by Tom Watson is the debut novel about Aina and Whitney, two individuals who were in exile for a crime they committed. They’ve kept busy – Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps – but something is not right. It suggested a story of survival and hardship, a situation which require out-of-the-box thinking and the island setting itself promised a mystery to unravel.

This really didn’t: the level of explanation is well maintained, the resolution shocked and gripped me (while also being somehow predictable from the first few pages). Trying to stay afloat trying to survive, whilst everything you thought to be true seems to be a lie. I would throw a few questions at her from Proust’s questionnaire; probably “what is your greatest regret”, “what is your motto” and “who are your heroes in real life”. I cannot help but think that the premise of this novel is metastatic where even feelings about feelings are involved.As I said I was obviously in the minority and maybe it was as much to do with my frame of mind whilst reading as the writing itself! It seemed very much that Watson wanted to keep the narrative focused solely on Aina and Whitney though with mixed success. Writing consultant and ex publisher Andrew Wille champions a writing concept based on the use of elements, not only as physical external forces but tools that can equally be used to enhance writing itself.