A New York hedge funder for the last 15 years, John discovered that “hell occupies one of the upper floors.” He knows that finding Gunther—whom he had abandoned mid-way in his youth in order to pursue his career—and likewise rediscovering his own past promise means comprehending this elusive, surprising island. Still, he makes an uneasy fit among the compounds, vineyards, harvest celebrations, kayak voyages, and nude beaches packed with baking bodies. He hopes to reconcile with Gunther, whom he had abandoned years before to pursue a career, but even though Gunther is fondly known throughout the island it’s been a while since anyone’s actually seen him. Meanwhile, the many spirited colloquies push John to face questions about the state of his soul.
Each meeting and situation, described with sumptuous prose and brisk, searching dialogue, also reveals something about Ibiza that either unsettles or awes John. Kurian conjures wonders, like the beautiful beach of Cala Salada and the mysterious mountain Es Vedrá, the novel edging at times toward a travelogue, albeit with an interest in romance, transcendence, and mysteries of the heart. The love story is sweet, but it's the male friendships—both between John and Gunther, and then John and Andre—that prove the richest.
Takeaway: Sumptuous novel of Ibiza, friendship, and recovering one’s soul.
Comparable Titles: Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible, Gayl Jones’s The Birdcatcher.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
A man leaves behind his lucrative New York City hedge fund career to seek redemption —and a long-lost friend—on Ibiza, the island of “second chances.”
After fifteen years selling his soul to high finance, thirty-something John Balkus arrives in Ibiza to find his way back to himself in Justin Kurian’s ethereal novel The Canticle of Ibiza.
After selling his cavernous apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, John arrives on the Spanish island of Ibiza seeking answers to life. Fueled by rumors that his college friend, Gunther, lives somewhere on the island, John is determined to find him. Fifteen years ago, the two close friends planned diligently to launch a philosophical-theology journal together. But the temptation of a high-paying corporate job in New York City lured John away, thereby torpedoing the journal and their friendship.
Before he begins to explore the island and ask around for Gunther, an enigmatic yet forceful women thirty years John’s senior approaches him at an outdoor café. Angela is an island resident who takes an unusual interest in John who, she says, reminds her of “the ghost of my husband.”
Taking pity on the widow, John lets Angela show him around Ibiza and introduce him to her high-placed friends at posh dinners and wild Ibizan parties. Kurian captures the pulse of Ibiza with lush visualizations of the beaches, the markets, and the unique people. Here, philosophy and the daily quest to live freely and fully are maxims that guide the eclectic townspeople John meets in his forays.
Kurian populates this rich novel with human flora of all varieties: hippies, communists, kayakers, musicians, monks, marijuana farmers, nudists, and starving artists (sometimes quite literally). As John asks around about Gunther, he collectsshreds of information while Ibiza’s people begin to reshape his understanding of life.Kurian chronicles this shift in John’s perceptions in a place where “everyone is here to feel good.”
“A rudimentary idea, but after all his years in the financial sector, quite a novel one. In that world, if something interfered with quality, it was exterminated; cold and simple.”
John grasps this simple acceptance of everyone and their abilities as a revelation. He also has something to offer others as well. With Andre, a local artist who lives in a rat-infested tent in the forest, he begins a friendship that eventually helps Andre to stand up for himself as an artist and a man. The most delightful surprise is Diana Clarke, a vivacious and witty DJ from Yorkshire, England, who catches John’s eye and interest...much to the disgust of Angela, who becomes increasingly unpleasant to John throughout the story.
As John’s search for Gunther nears its climax, it is Ibiza that stands out “as the magical host” for people’s dreams and aspirations. Kurian writes as one in love when describing the natural beauty of the beaches, forests, and weather patterns:
“Openings of rainfalls are like the start of symphonies: the initial notes seize your attention.”
It is obvious the author knows of what he writes, lending authority to his artful descriptions of Ibiza’s beachfronts and forested interiors, redolent with the scents of pine and cedar. Kurian adds in a thundercloud of foreboding, however, that takes an explosive turn by the novel’s end (which is at odds with the story’s gauzy, philosophical arc). As well, slightly stilted dialogue conventions become more noticeable as the novel proceeds, lending a strange Elizabethan air that can distract.
The Canticle of Ibiza is a rewarding story of redemption, love, and second chances set in an earthly paradise.
