Islands, both literal and figurative, recur in fiction authored by many prominent Canadian women writers. Using a critical lens based on Northrop Frye and Julia Kristeva, this book closely examines fourteen novels by eight twentieth-century authors, emphasizing works by L. M. Montgomery, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood. Several of the novels, such as Montgomery¿s Anne of Green Gables, Laurence¿s A Jest of God and The Diviners, Atwood¿s Surfacing and Bodily Harm, Alice Munro¿s The Lives of Girls and Women, and Gabrielle Roy¿s The Tin Flute, are among Canadäs most well-known. Some of the works discussed present the island as a redemptive retreat, but in most cases the island¿s role is ambiguous, ranging from a temporary respite from life¿s pressures to a nightmarish trap.