Book Reviews

By the year 2040, the world's a quirky, not-entirely-sensible place. Bjorn Turmann's futuristic novel, The Last Tobacco Shop in the World (2010, Konstrukt Books, 333 pages), shows how quirky by focusing on Jarangwa, a fictional Pacific island created by seismic activity linked to the 2004 tsunami.

Autonomous Jarangwa measures just the size of a football field. What happens there inspires plenty of interest and triggers surprising plot twists.

“I've taken today's issues and fast-forwarded 30 years,” Turmann said. “The inspiration probably came from watching a lot of Planet of the Apes when I was a kid. That too was mostly fantasy with only a little science fiction. My idea was to go into the realm of the unknown, namely the future, and come up with a story that people could relate to on today's terms.

“I can remember sitting in Vietnam, and everyone around me was smoking. Then I came up with the title, The Last Tobacco Shop in the World. Smoking, together with other issues, became a good vehicle to tell a story.”

Thirty-five-year-old Anton Brick, a reluctant protagonist, has worked as a “syrup monkey” (procurement agent) in the Iraqi oil industry. Ready for change, he ventures to a Cambodian casino and meets Lawrence Prescott Jr, the silver-haired, steely-eyed boss of Jarangwa. Intrigued, Anton accepts a lucrative job as the guest-relations manager at Jarangwa's only hotel. It sounds easy – chatting with guests and making sure they keep smoking.

The world has changed. Old superpowers have disintegrated. New ones formed. Plagues kill, and shadowy forces discourage pre-marital sex, love, immoral thoughts and smoking.

Anton's new boss operates Jarangwa (accessible by an infrequent boat from Thailand) as a smokers' refuge, a resort immune to outside pressures where smoking isn't just accepted – it's highly encouraged. “People come to Jarangwa to smoke tobacco... anywhere. In their rooms, at dinner, in the lobby – wherever they want. I call it the new ‘smoke free’ environment: smoke freely wherever you want.”

But does the tobacco industry deserve eradication when arms dealers still thrive? “People, billions of people, have been smoking for thousands of years. To let the tobacco industry fade away now would be to kill a huge slice of history.”

Anyone involved with tobacco bears the “terrorist” label. “By 2040, the safest place to go may be a smokers' island,” Turmann said. “The irony of that struck me.”

Hard-core smokers on Jarangwa show a certain artistry that's sensual, even erotic. “Mimi looked pleased with herself as she rocked a leg against her knee, inhaling and exhaling tobacco with each twist of her ankle.
‘You've gone mad as well, Mimi,’ Abby said, a cigarette like a crutch propping up parted lips.
‘Maybe, Abby,’ blowing words skyward with equal servings of smoke and spectacle.”

Despite Jarangwa's shortfalls, it has comforts too. Anton begins to like the place. “The environment grew on me. Meals with cigarettes pointed at my face. I started to believe that watching chain smokers made interesting subject matter. Emotions couldn't be hidden when a cigarette was attached to their lips.... I could look straight into their thoughts when they smoked.”

Much more than smoking happens, little of it anticipated by lackadaisical Anton. “This is a funny island, my friend. It's so small, yet we're always some door or wall or cigarette away from discovering the truth about something... or someone.”

The place holds nearly as many hidden agendas as cigarette packs. Even animals distrust it! “As Oh released the boat's rope, the captain yelled a cryptic farewell. ‘Try and find a bird on a tree here, Boy. A snake in a hole, a lizard in a bush....’ When I turned around, I saw him light up a cigarette and pull away....”

No ordinary author, Turmann can summarize people within a sentence or two. Consider Mr Khieu, a Cambodian billionaire. “The former Valmont family land is now mine, Anton,” he said, cleaning his diamond encrusted jade ring on his potbelly with a toothpick as we sat in the back of his casino with two bicep-loving personal assistants.”

The author crafts vivid word images: “At night, Jarangwa was the vulnerable, barely inhabited little island lying in fetal position in the dark.”

There's even a strange sense of déjà vu. “A month-old newspaper lay on a bench of the Jarangwa shuttle. I picked it up and noticed the front-page headline: ‘Saddam Hussein Elected President of Iraq’.”

Unlike the book's contents, its cover makes an obvious target for criticism. The plain blackness lacks imagination and won't attract much bookshop attention. But the author wants readers to see Jarangwa in their minds, not in a gaudy cover-image: “My cover reflects the unknown and perhaps staring into the abyss.”

Nomadic like Anton, Turmann moved to Asia from Vancouver in 1993. His many regional stops included stays in Singapore, Laos, Hong Kong and Bangkok. He wrote two earlier novels, Good Daughter (2005) and The Karaoke World of Cortous Haire (2006). Except for an odd cigar, he doesn't smoke.

Even now, the Earth has become a strange place. For that trend to continue until 2040 sounds entirely logical.

Approval rating: 82 per cent.