My Father's Island: A Galapagos Quest
by Johanna Angermeyer
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The true story of a girl on the raw edge of adolescence who discovers the secrets of an impossibly romantic family history. Johanna Angermeyer's father Hans and his four brothers fled Nazi Germany and sailed to the Galapagos islands, where they lived like Robin Crusoes, surrounded by exotic wildlife. But the war caught up with the Enchanted Isles, and Johanna found herself growing up 2000 miles away, dreaming of the island her father had loved.Tags
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Angermyer makes a bit of a mystery out of her father's story, revealing it as she gradually came to understand it through her childhood and youth. It's very effective storytelling. The paragraph that most resonated with me, late in the book, stated her realization that Hans Angermeyer fled Germany to escape Hitler and Hitler's war, spent the entire time in South America (both Ecuador and the Galapagos) and nonetheless died a victim of Hitler's policies -- and of course, American xenophobia. Very moving story.
"It was probably a family thing - Robinson Crusoe in the genes", 28 Feb. 2015
This review is from: My Father's Island: A Galapagos Quest (Pelican Press) (Paperback)
Starting as a child in California, the author explains the family connection to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. The almost legendary account of her father and his brothers escaping Germany just before war, to sail away and live a Robinson Crusoe-like existence on the Galapagos Isles...But what exactly happened to her father?
Angermeyer slowly reveals the whole story in the course of telling her own love story with the Islands, as she goes out with her family to live there and meet her relatives, in her early teens. The Galapagos at this time (late 60s) were a pretty tough show more proposition: privies built over cliff edges, the struggle for food, the primitive houses. Yet set against this were magic moments: tame iguanas, killer whales and 'wonderful secret places in the bush, where no man or woman has ever walked.'
Highly readable and well-written, enhanced by the two strands of the story working in conjunction. show less
This review is from: My Father's Island: A Galapagos Quest (Pelican Press) (Paperback)
Starting as a child in California, the author explains the family connection to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. The almost legendary account of her father and his brothers escaping Germany just before war, to sail away and live a Robinson Crusoe-like existence on the Galapagos Isles...But what exactly happened to her father?
Angermeyer slowly reveals the whole story in the course of telling her own love story with the Islands, as she goes out with her family to live there and meet her relatives, in her early teens. The Galapagos at this time (late 60s) were a pretty tough show more proposition: privies built over cliff edges, the struggle for food, the primitive houses. Yet set against this were magic moments: tame iguanas, killer whales and 'wonderful secret places in the bush, where no man or woman has ever walked.'
Highly readable and well-written, enhanced by the two strands of the story working in conjunction. show less
Good book to read when visiting the islands.
Family history a bit confusing.
Family history a bit confusing.
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The author never knew her father, Hans Angermeyer, nor was she familiar with the circumstances of his last years or death. He was one of five brothers who left Nazi Germany in 1935, sailing to the Galapagos Islands to make a new home. In Ecuador, he married an American widow, Emmasha, who had a small son. They had one child and another on the way when war came. Emmasha and the children show more returned to the U.S.; Hans, a German national, was denied admittance. When the author was 13, the family returned to Ecuador and to the Galapagos for a meeting with relatives. Living on the island--even without amenities and with its perils--was paradise. Angermeyer learned to hunt, fish and enjoy a Robinson Crusoe-like existence. She gives an engaging account of life on the island with an extended family--and she gradually pieces together the events surrounding her father's death. It is a remarkable story of adventure, romance and the fulfillment of a dream. show less
added by chidori
Author Information
3 Works 69 Members
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1989
- Important places
- Ecuador; Galápagos Islands, Ecuador; Latin America; South America
- First words
- "One nashun unner God, invisible ... with freedum an' justice fer all."
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Then we went like the wind, i tell you, like the wind!
Classifications
- Genres
- Travel, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, Science & Nature
- DDC/MDS
- 918.66 — History & geography Geography & travel Geography of and travel in South America Panama and Colombia and Ecuador
- LCC
- F3741 .G2 .A64 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America Latin America. Spanish America South America Ecuador
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 62
- Popularity
- 500,003
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.79)
- Languages
- English, Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
