To the IslandsExhausted and losing faith, an Anglican minister flees his mission in Australia's northwest for the vast emptiness of the outback. In the soul country of the desert, the old man searches for the islands of the Aboriginal dead, reflecting on past transgressions and on his life's work. A Lear like tale of madness and destruction, published when Randolph Stow was only 22, To the Islands is compelling and wisea poetic masterpiece.