Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and animal death.

Flinders Island is located on the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania, part of a series of island remnants of a land bridge that once connected the two. It is characterized by majestic, craggy peaks rising from the ocean. Flinders Island is roughly the same size as Martha’s Vineyard but has only 900 permanent residents. The island is special to Brooks because its natural beauty reminds her of Martha’s Vineyard; also, it is connected to her heritage and her past with Tony. She and Tony vacationed on Flinders Island while researching her second book. Her return to Flinders three years after Tony’s death symbolizes a return to origins and a reclaiming of self. As an Australian who built much of her adult life abroad, Brooks’s reconnection with her roots helps her rediscover her identity outside of being a widow, and she begins to forge a new way of living with loss.

Flinders symbolizes mourning and survival, offering Brooks solitude, transformation, and a raw confrontation with grief and mortality. Removed from social expectations and responsibilities, Brooks retreats to face what she fears will be the emotional storm of losing Tony. Yet Flinders becomes a quiet companion, offering her the space and solitude to sit with her grief. Though she does spend some of her time reconstructing the difficult days after Tony’s death, more often than not, she turns to happy memories of Tony. Amid the wildness of nature, Brooks enters an emotional wilderness that is as remote and unpredictable. She finds moments of clarity and healing through long walks in the bush and swimming in the ocean. The island becomes a place where she can observe natural processes, helping her understand that death is not cruel or unnatural. After seeing a dead bird, she thinks, “Nature is a remorseless reminder of human insignificance. Daytime, nighttime—there’s no escape from the realization of how little we matter” (191). Nature teaches Brooks that decay and renewal are ancient and unending processes, and this brings her comfort.