The Island
The million-copy Number One bestseller 'A moving and absorbing holiday read'
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Publisher Description
'A moving and absorbing holiday read that pulls at the heartstrings' Evening Standard
The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006. Victoria Hislop tells a dramatic tale of four generations, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties, through the war, to the present day.
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...
Praise for The Island. . .
'A vivid, moving and absorbing tale'
Observer
'Victoria Hislop . . . brings dignity and tenderness to her novel about lives blighted by leprosy'
Telegraph
'Wonderful descriptions, strong characters and an intimate portrait of island existence'
Woman & Home
'War, tragedy and passion unfurl against a Mediterranean backdrop in this engrossing debut novel'
You magazine
'Hislop's deep research, imagination and patent love of Crete creates a convincing portrait of times on the island'
Evening Standard
'A page-turning tale that reminds us that love and life continue in even the most extraordinary of circumstances'
Sunday Express
'A beautiful tale of enduring love and unthinking prejudice'
Express
In 2018, The Island was awarded a Nielsen Platinum Bestseller Award in recognition of selling over one million copies in the United Kingdom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Travel writer Hislop's unwieldy debut novel opens with 25-year-old Alexis leaving Britain for Crete, her mother Sofia's homeland, hoping to ferret out the secrets of Sofia's past and thereby get a handle on her own turbulent life. Sofia's friend Fortini tells Alexis of her grandmother Anna, and great-aunt Maria. Their mother (Alexis's great-grandmother) contracted leprosy in 1939 and went off to a leper colony on the nearby island of Spinalonga, leaving them with their father. Anna snags a wealthy husband, Andreas, but smolders for his renegade cousin, Manoli. When philanderer Manoli chooses Maria, Anna is furious. Conveniently, Maria also contracts leprosy and is exiled, allowing Anna to conduct an affair with Manoli. Meanwhile, Maria feels an attraction to her doctor, who may have similar feelings. Though the plot is satisfyingly twisty, the characters play one note apiece (Anna is prone to dramatic outrages, Maria is humble and kind, and their love interests are jealous and aggressive). Hislop's portrayal of leprosy those afflicted and the evolving treatment during the 1940s and 1950s is convincing, but readers may find the narrative's preoccupation with chronicling the minutiae of daily life tedious.
