Product Description

On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother’s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.

Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip... (20060416)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #710 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Review

'Adding depth and colour to the story is the description of Cretan life... in particular, the vividly detailed account of life on Spinalonga... It is one of the achievements of this thoughtful novel that it presents the lives of the island's inhabitants with such empathy. The result is a fascinating work that combines a moving love story witha  plea for more understanding about this most cruel of diseases.'

'This is a vivid, moving and absorbing tale, with its sensitive, realistic engagement with all the consequences of, and stigma attached to leprosy, elevating it beyond holiday literature.' 

'Gently gripping tale'

About the Author
Victoria Hislop is a writer and journalist. She writes travel features for the Sunday Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday and a number of magazines. She also writes regular features on education for the Daily Telegraph, and celebrity profiles for Woman & Home. Victoria lives in Kent with her husband, Ian Hislop, and their two children. (20060430)

Customer Reviews

A beautiful novel that makes you re-evaluate your views.
This has to be one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is certainly a quality book but without being heavy like an old classic. It is well-researched and contains powerful imagery and detailed descriptions of Crete. It makes you want to go and look up the places on the internet so you can see exactly where the novel is set. It is tragic without being upsetting. This novel makes you think about how we treat people today with certain illnesses and explores class, prejudice and discrimination wonderfully. It also makes you consider those who put themselves at risk for the sake of others and humbles the reader.

The story is well structured and I was not able to guess what was going to happen in the end, but the book was so enjoyable throughout that I certainly wasn't hankering to see what would happen at the end. This is one of those books I was sad to finish and will be pushed to find one so good to read next. I will definately be buying the author's next book and would highly recommend this to anyone who likes books that let you escape abroad in your own home but with a bit of substance.

Different books for different types of readers
I enjoyed The Island but I think it has to be admitted that it cast leprosy in an "old" light: a book mentioned below, John Tayman's The Colony was aimed at the serious reader who wants to know about leprosy from a non-fiction viewpoint, and Dinah Kung's Under Their Skin offers readers a more complex, engrossing novel where leprosy medicine is in the fabric of the story, but isn't the focus. The Island was obviously meant for beach reading, even said so on the cover. I'm studying public health so I'm thrilled to see authors looking at medicine this way for all kinds or levels of reading!

Not worth our reading group's time
We read this in tandem with Under Their Skin by D.L. Kung, and concluded that Hislop's efforts to capture the pathos of Spinalonga and the problems of leprosy were admirable, but let down by her bad writing and clunky plotting. Under Their Skin was a very modern story, and although the ending didn't suit everyone, its background on leprosy was breathtaking--you really finished knowing how things have changed.