In the reading of The Buried Giant, I have only one real question and maybe it was answered but Does crossing to the island mean dying?
The boatman is one of the most ambiguous characters. At first he seems like a passing character but he, or at least a version of him, shows up at the very end.
The image of the boatman is a very common theme when looking at the death myths in culture. Greeks believed that there was a ferryman across the river Styx. It is in many hymns about “crossing Jordan” in the African Christian Spirituals.
Another reason that I think that the going to the island means dying is that we find out that Beatrice and Axl’s son is dead but at the very end she believes that they might catch a glimpse of him on the island.