The Island

There is an absolutely heartrending section close to the beginning of this book; rarely have I been kept awake so late into the night reading and blubbing alternately.

Unfortunately, I found the remainder of the book rather ordinary in comparison - nothing that really reached the emotional heights of those earlier events. There is a point late on where a character is rushed onto a plane in order to tell her story in person, and I was practically shouting 'Save the cost of a plane ticket - I guessed the ending fifty pages ago'

When I read my first Victoria Hislop book, The Sunrise, I just knew that I had to read all of her other books, so I was delighted when my fairy godsister offered to loan me her copy of The Island which was Victoria Hislop's first novel. What an amazing debut, it's absolutely breathtaking and it affected me so much that I found myself getting quite emotional quite a few times.

I have never been to Crete but my parents have been and I heard all about their trip to Spinalonga - the famous Greek leper colony. What Victoria Hislop does so cleverly is that she breathes new life into history by creating characters you take to your heart so that you walk every step and feel every emotion with them.

The story starts in 2001 with Alexis Fielding show more visiting the small fishing village of Plaka to find out about her family history, it's a bit of an excuse to get away from her boyfriend for a few days on their holiday to Crete. Alexis carries a letter from her mother, Sofia, to her old friend Fotini which asks Fotini to tell Alexis the story that Sofia can't bring herself to tell her daughter. So the story rolls back to 1939 beginning with Sofia's grandparents, Georgis and Eleni, and their two daughters Anna and Maria. The family are heartbroken when leprosy curses their house and a life on Spinalonga beckons for Eleni, but this isn't the only secret that Sofia has kept hidden from Alexis.

The story of Spinalonga is absolutely fascinating and I could imagine people's fear of leprosy before it was fully understood. It's so sad to think that people could have been going about their everyday lives then noticing an odd patch of skin and before they know it they are ripped from their family and sent to live on the island. It must have been soul destroying to be so close to mainland Crete but hopefully the residents made the best of it, as they did in this book. This multi-coloured, hopeful and beautiful story is the history of Spinalonga that I want to remember and The Island is not a book I will ever forget.

A beautiful, breathtaking debut that breathes new life into this mysterious island and reveals its colourful history so vividly through Victoria Hislop's descriptive and emotional prose. A definite recommended read and one that I will read again. show less

The Island is Victoria Hislop’s debut novel and is set on the island of Crete. The book covers the lives and loves of a number of generations of women from one family and covers much of the 20th century. It opens in the present as Alexis comes to Crete both on a holiday with her boyfriend and to search out the story of her family on her secretive mother’s side. What she finds is a strange history of leprosy, adultery, and murder. She also finds that the women in her family have been strong, loyal and caring.

I loved the story and was intrigued by all the information about leprosy and the small community of Spinalonga where lepers were sent to live away from the general population. Spinalonga is a tiny island just off the coast of show more Crete, it was a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. This terrible, misunderstood disease was a living death sentence as victims were shunned and forced away from their families and homes. Considered “unclean” a leper was unwelcome wherever they went. Spinalonga was, for many, a refuge. Here they could live in relative peace, had access to doctors, and the company of others afflicted by the disease.

The story draws the reader in with it’s wonderful descriptions, strong characters and moving story-line. There were some flaws to the book mostly in the predictability of the family saga and some overload of information, but her research was excellent and I learned a lot about the disease of leprosy and fell in love with the island of Crete. Overall The Island was well worth my time invested in the reading. show less

I don't normally choose 'family saga' novels, but there was something very appealing about the premise of this one. Set on Crete, specifically around the little fishing village of Plaka, it tells the story of several generations of Petrakis women, and their ties to the leper colony on Spinalonga, the little island just off the coast. Alexis, British-born and half-Greek, is determined to find out about her mother's family history, despite her unfathomable secrecy. Finally relenting, Sofia sends her daughter to an old friend in Plaka, who finally tells her the story of her family, beginning with her great-grandmother Eleni and her great-grandfather Georgiou and continuing through the years to her mother's lifetime.

I found this to be a show more very evocative book, filled with the sights, sounds and scents of life in rural Greece. It was also quite educational, giving as it does a comprehensive, if fictionalised, account of life in the leper colony on Spinalonga. It taught me a lot about leprosy, in terms of the disease itself and of the way it was viewed by society at that time. Aspects of the stigma of having a disease and the embarrassment of its physical manifestation continue to ring true for other illnesses and disabilities today, providing an interesting comparison and a pause for reflection. The descriptions of the community on the island were alive with colour and feeling, and I felt myself sinking into the unfamiliar setting and becoming deeply absorbed in the narrative as the family's story unfolded.

I can't believe it's taken me so many years to finally get to this book, but I'm glad I finally plucked it down from the shelf and gave it the attention it deserves. I can see why this book became a bestseller, and I'll be recommending it heartily to anyone looking for a summer read with an wide sweep, a Mediterranean flavour, a thoughtful theme and a whole lot of heart. show less

An excellent debut novel, mainly set in the past, with the hook of a young woman finding out about her family history.

The setting is Crete, and particularly Spinalonga where there was a leper colony for many years. Perhaps the author paints too rosy a picture of life there, but there are plenty of deprivations shown, as well as the deep trauma of permanent separation from one's loved ones, if there was any sign of leprosy.

Very well written, thought-provoking and a lot of insights into a life and situation I knew almost nothing about.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-island-by-victoria-hislop.html

[This is a review I wrote in 2007]

When I first picked up the book and started reading I thought the first two chapters were quite stilted and hesitant, almost as if they had been written as an afterthought, but carry on reading and you're rewarded with the main body of the story which I just couldn't put down.

Essentially the book follows the story of Alexis, who has gone to Plaka in Crete to find out about her mother's Cretan family. Begininng with Alexis's great-grandmother Eleni, trace the history through her daughters Anna and Maria in wartime Crete, and find amongst it all a history that is richly interwoven with the small island of Spinalonga off the coast of Plaka, a former leper colony.

With wonderfully rich descriptions, this is show more a moving page-turner - great for a holiday read, or any kind of read if you haven't got a beach holiday on the horizon. A brilliant first novel. show less

This was a surprise, chosen at random from my local library. The book is well-researched, and the back history of the leper colony alongside the history of German occupation during the Second World War lifts it above the average beach read. There is plenty of romance and family saga about it, but it had the feel of a more serious book, similar to Louis de Berniere's books set on Kefalonia. Hislop writes well, and the story flowed beautifully for the most part. There are a couple of passages where the action could move on more quickly and, towards the end, passages where she could have reigned in the speed of her writing and made it more than mere exposition, but over all I was very impressed and will read more of Hislop's books.