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    The Island
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    The Island
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    The Island
    Ebook537 pages8 hours

    The Island

    By Victoria Hislop

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A number one bestseller in the UK, this captivating and epic tale of family ties, romance, war, disease, and history is set on the beautiful Greek Island of Crete.

    On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding plans a trip to her mother’s childhood home in Plaka, Greece hoping to unravel Sofia’s hidden past. Given a letter to take to Sofia’s old friend, Fotini, Alexis is promised that through Fotini, 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. Fotini at last reveals 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. Alexis discovers how intimately her family is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip.

    Atmospheric and captivating, The Island transports readers and keeps them gripped to the very last word. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061863455
    Author

    Victoria Hislop

    Victoria Hislop is the internationally bestselling author of The Island and The Return. She writes travel features for the Sunday Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, House & Garden, and Woman & Home. She divides her time among rural Kent, London, and Crete. She is married and has two children.

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    Reviews for The Island

    4/5

    71 ratings36 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very readable book.Enjoyed very much learning about life in a Greek village in the 40s and during WWII and about the Petrakis family of Eleni and Giorgis and their daughters Anna and Maria.. A short boat ride from their village of Plaka is the island of Spinalonga, a leper community..Eleni after her diagnosis is sent to Spinalonga and later her duaghter Maria. Maria does leave the island when a cure is founded.There is lots of family drama to keep this book interesting and along with vivid descriptions make this a good book to read.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable and moving read, though I thought the modern 'bookends' to the story were unnecessary, and added little. I would have preferred the writer to concentrate on the story of Spinalonga. An appendix that gave a brief history of real-life Spinalonga would have also been very helpful. That's the problem with historical fiction that has some basis in reality. You're never quite sure what you've learned.
    • 4/5
      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.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      If this were made into a movie it might look a bit like Titanic, with its book-ends structure, and the old woman relaying a sad tale through romanticised lenses to a younger person who's new on the scene.

      I liked the bits about the lepers. Every time someone was struck down with leprosy I sat up a bit straighter, hoping for some sort of insight into what it's really like to be afflicted with such a terrible disease and ostricised from friends and family. But the author's choice to write in distant omniscient third person meant I never really learnt what that feels like.

      This is meant to be a quick read, so everything is given to us on a plate. It's one of those books where we're not painted a scene and left to work things out for ourselves; we're given both the scene and the narrator's judgement on it.

      I found the judgement of Anna particularly harsh. The contrast of two sisters, one good, one bad, was too reminiscent of fairy-telling to offer much to the thinking adult reader. I found Anna the more interesting of the two. Maria was a hopeless, doe-eyed wet-dream of a character. The image of the beautiful, pious, meek and obedient Maria, standing on the shores of that island looking at the doctor will stay with me as an especially overdone romantic cliche. (In my mind there is wind. Blowing. Through her silky but unpretentiously adorned hair.)

      I was feeling more positive about this book until after she got shot by her husband in a fit of (completely out-of-character) rage. When a fictional character stews on something and then acts like a mad person for five minutes it doesn't work. Well, authors do it, but it's been done so many times before. I'm not a huge fan of such melodrama.

      These days I find it harder and harder to enjoy a light-hearted story about women who are basically chattels, as Cretan women were in those days. As I blossom into a curmudgeonly middle-aged woman, I frequently need to remind myself that we can't rewrite history; that's how things really were, and some women must've been happy, so why not write about them? But I got increasingly frustrated with this narrator. On page 426 she took the cake with the bit about what Giorgis was thinking after his daughter was murdered by her husband for sleeping with the husband's cousin: 'Though [Giorgis] wanted justice for Anna, he was never in any doubt that it was his daughter's behaviour that had triggered Andreas's violent reaction.'

      Having recently read a book by Geraldine Brooks, this statement was far too reminiscent of the honor killings that still take place around this sorry world, and I felt pissed off that this book forms a sort of endorsement. The not-so-subtext message is: 'Well, you'll have to go to prison if you shoot your wife dead, but it's completely understandable that you killed her. After all, she was having sex with another *man*!!!!! That's YOUR honor she's taken off with, right there!!!!'

      I hate that shit.

      Yet many, many readers do so love this book. My mother borrowed someone else's copy on a cruise. She liked the story so much that she kindly bought a new copy and sent it straight to me, which is why I made it all the way to page 426 in the first place.
    • 4/5
      If I could divide this into 'the middle bit' and 'the beginning and the end' I'd give the middle bit five stars and the beginning and end about two and half. The book starts and ends with stilted chick lit. The central account of a leper colony in the mid twentieth century, through war and through the search for a cure for leprosy, was fascinating, evocative, and intelligent.
    • 2/5
      It's rare that I don't finish a book once I've started reading, very rare. I feel I made a commitment. I read 180 pages, but with over 300 to go I just don't care enough about the characters. Yes, I'm kind of interested to see how things work out, but that's all. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as it's not my usual sort of reading. Good thing it was free (three cheers for World Book Night).
    • 3/5
      nice
    • 2/5
       Read this one at work, as lighter relief from Milton at home. It was OK, I suppose. All family trials and tribultions. Has Alexis debating of she wants to spend the rest of her life with Ed, who is superficially perfect, but sounds like an arse to me. However she, frankly, is a bit drippy too. Her mother has never spoken about her family or upbringing, but on a visit to Crete, she visits the village of her mother's birth, and finds out the long story from a friend of her mother's. the modern story bookends the past, but the two barely interact throughout the length of the book, so at no point do we discover how this is impacting on Alexis. All just a bit too neat and compartmentalised. The back story is pretty sensational, murder, adultery, leprosy and isolation on a leper island. The cover blurb described it as a beach book, and that about sums it up, it's mildly diverting, but that's about it.
    • 5/5
      Alexis is about to go on holiday with her boyfriend, to the country of her mother's birth Greece. She knows nothing about her heritage and suggests that she might visit the village her mother was born in. Armed with a letter to one of her mother's friends Alexis embarks on a journey that she will never forget.Having reached Crete she leaves her boyfriend heads to the village. She embarks on a trip to the nearby deserted island of Spinalonga, which she establishes is a former leper colony. She spends a few hours there and heads back to the village to seek out her mother's friend. She meets up with Fortini who then shares with her the loves and lives of her mother and the generations that went before her and the connection the family has to Spinalonga.This was a fabulous read. Read over the course of 24 hours. I could barely put down and did so reluctantly.A wonderfully written book and is recommended.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down. Different topic and very interesting. Amazing to read about the leper colony on the island and how they formed a strong community.
    • 5/5
      This is a book filled with much sadness but also with much joy. Through the telling of this story we discover how people react when they are faced with the fragile balance between love and hate, forgiveness and the burden of regret.On the Cretan island of Plaka, many families have been touched by the spectre of leprosy. It hovers over the island, filling the inhabitants with dread, bringing out caring and love in many, fear and loathing in others. Lepers beset by the disease on Plaka or or other nearby islands, are sent to the island of Spinalonga, always within sight of Plaka, but a world unto itself. There always seems to be two stories going on, but connected in some way to the other. The story begins when Alexis goes to Plaka to uncover her mother's past. What she discovers both shocks her and determines her future.What I enjoyed most about "The Island" was the very unique writing style of the author. One of the few drawbacks to reading constantly is finding that so many authors write in styles similar to another author. It is always a joy to discover an author whose style "stands out". Hislop's empathetic prose does not interfere with the telling of the story, but rather adds to the sense of realism. The reader feels as though they are experiencing the heartbreak of the patient suffering from leprosy or a family member losing their loved one as the "patient" goes to live on the lepers island. They are so close and yet so far away on Spinalonga. The inhabitants of the lepers island set up their own government and public works, have their own elections and try with what little they have to make the island their "home".In another example of the choices that life constantly offers us, a relationship develops between one of the doctors and a patient. This development is unusual because there is rarely any kind of commitment between lepers and those free of the disease because of the impossibility of a future together. But "The Island " is one of those rare books that reminds us of the balance between hope and despair and revealed through dire circumstances, that life offers us if we dare to embrace the opportunity.I recommend this as a quick read-473 pages-of great depth and good writing.
    • 5/5
      The Island is beautifully written. I enjoyed the history which unfolds for the main character. I was unaware of a Leper colony off the coast of Crete but was fascinated by a group of people sent away for life. The only thing which kept me from giving this 5 stars was the ending seemed very rushed. The book was moving along smoothly then boom....lots of events happen in the last few chapters. It didn't flow as well as it should have. All in all, a fantastic read.
    • 3/5
      An interesting book set on and around a leper colony just off the coast of Crete. I didn't find the story itself that interesting the main characters a rather plain and one dimensional. There is nothing in the plot to excite or surprise the reader. However that said the setting is very interesting and the book gives brilliant insight into the everyday lives of people living on the island of Spinalonga. The book is well worth reading for this alone.
    • 3/5
      A fairly easy read, a bit too predicable for my liking though. It was billed as a holiday read, so probably not the best book to read in a cold and snowy December! The story is mainly set in Crete, and I did like the descriptions of life on a the Greek island. I can imagine life was pretty much as set out in the book. It's about a family who are affected by leprosy - both the sufferers and the people who are affected by their loved ones with the illness, and about finding love in the most difficult of circumstances. It was a little bit overdone at times, and, as mentioned above, I found it to be a little too predictable.
    • 5/5
      Excellent...a great plot and the sort of book that you can picture it as if you are familiar with the setting would highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      Small Island - BIG storyThis was an interesting read. Learning more about Crete and the Leper Colony that existed on the Island of Spinalonga Island, just of the coast from Plaka. The author is a travel writer, I believe, and that certainly came through in this , her first novel. I was almost more interested in Crete culture, Greek history, and the everyday life in the Leper Colony than I was in the story of the three generations of women who were connected to Plaka/Spinalonga. I especially liked reading about the era during WWII and the German occupation of Greece. It is an era that I have not read about before. The characters are fine, but, the story is fairly predictable. The friendship between two of the main young women is pleasant and an important part of the story. Worthwhile and entertaining, but not a book that I would likely re-read. Three Stars out of a possible Five Stars. ***
    • 4/5
      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'
    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 2/5
      Despite its promise, I found this international bestseller deeply disappointing. The setting is fascinating – the island of Spinalonga in Crete, which was a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. Hislop does give the reader some idea of village life in Crete in the 1940’s and 1950’s, but this book could have been so much better. The style is prosaic; every punch is telegraphed and every description is three sentences too long. There is little subtlety in the characterisation and Hislop seems to feel it necessary to explain their every move, leaving nothing to the reader’s imagination. The players are generally cardboard caricatures and it is difficult to find much empathy with them. I persevered to the end, to find out what happened to the settlement on Spinalonga, but found it all very contrived.
    • 5/5
      Very few books have touched my heart as much as this one did. I just loved reading this book. To start with, I found this book out of the blue. When I picked this book up, I had no clue who the author was (Now I know a lot, did a bit of Bing!) and what the premise of the novel was. Now, I am ever so glad that I picked it up. The book is so touching, filled with laughter, pain, love and life! I was so into the book that I couldnt keep wondering what would happen next. I really wished this book wouldn't end.Its a story of a girl called Alexis who sets out to learn more about her family history. She ends up learning the close relationship her family has had with leprosy and how the disease wrecked her family apart. All the characters in the book are so well thought out and so well written about. The author does just a fabulous job of helping us construct the character's image in our minds. I really like Maria's character. Now I cannot wait to go to Spinalonga! Wish, I get that opportunity.I loved the book so much that I actually forced my girlfriend to read it too and she was equally pleased with the book.I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      I couldn't put this down. Very well written with the characters coming alive on every page with the plot moving at a fast pace but not that you lose what's going on.
    • 3/5
      Interesting story but very simplistic writing. I wanted more from the author.
    • 4/5
      A good read. It is a compassionate account of a young womens life after she makes the terrible discovery that she has leprosy. Not sentimental.
    • 4/5
      Quick, easy read when you don't want to "think" too much. Sad but interesting family saga involving leprosy and a leper colony off the island of Crete.
    • 2/5
      This is not the sort of book I woud pick up and read and I can't say I expected to like it but I really tried to. The conceit of a modern girl trying to understand decades of family-history seemed a little trite but fortunately the history itself was fascinating in its subjects.The author's decriptions at the beginning of the book of some domestic details like cafe tables and the colours of the sea were poetically done but some of that seemed to fade from the end of the novel. I also felt that the description of the physicality of leprosy was somewhat haphazard but I'm not an expert. What struck me as most lacking however was the emotional side. I think the author was trying to convey the stiltedness and formality of the era and culture and even perhaps the difficulty of reading the intentions of others. In part perhaps she suceeded with that but I was left without a real sense of connection to the characters and only real sympathy for one old man.Since I think it would be utterly unfair to judge this book on its historical accuracy or otherwise I think that the author did quite a good job of depicting a certain type of community particularly in the pre-WW2 section. For me it was more evocative of the Cretan life than it was of the leper colony which might have benefited from further descriptions of the emotional tensions.Overall the plot was interesting enough to keep my attention, with more than enough tragedy and some redemption for good measure. It was pretty but a little a superficial.Competent but could do better - as Eleni the teacher might be tempted to say..
    • 4/5
      I must admit I read this in a rush, and it was only afterwards that the book that I really thought about the book. I looked on the internet for photographs of the island of Spinalonga and recognised it from the descriptions from the book. I seemed to bring the fiction to life.Definitely a book that grows on you.
    • 4/5
      An interesting look at what it might have been like inside the leper colony of Spinalonga of the coast of Crete, but the author does not give us any hint of her research, or how much of the story is based on fact. That, plus some stilted dialogue and narrative, lower this books rating a bit, but it remains an engaging story.
    • 4/5
      An excellent novel set in Crete. The historical details of the local island leper colony,Spinalonga, are accurate throughout its fifty year history. We follow a Greek family there through the second world war and beyond for four generations. A truly original story, highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      On the whole, I really enjoyed The Island. It's a story of life in a small village of Crete which is a short boat ride away from the island of Spinalonga, a former leper colony. The fable-like storytelling style of writing was a bit irritating at times. It seemed overly simplistic and is fine for a short story but not for a novel. I'll take the book for what it is ... a bit over dramatized, a bit of cheesy romance. All the women are devastatingly beautiful and the men are dark and handsome. While reading, you wonder if you would feel as sorry for these people if they were described as ordinary (horrible, I know)! But I have to admit. I cried. It's definitely chick lit but with a bit more purpose as you get a glimpse of what life was like for people banished to a leper colony. I have no idea if the book was historically accurate or not but I won't find myself quoting it just to be on the safe side. Just a bit of light reading.
    • 4/5
      This book was different to a lot of the ones I've read recently, but I really enjoyed it. Set in Crete, it's about a family devasted by leprosy, and the courageous (and not so courageous)ways in which they dealt with the blows life dealt them.The book covers a few decades, meaning that there is a lot of detail covering a few months, and then it jumps a number of years, which was a bit frustrating sometimes.The author is very descriptive in her writing, but occassionally I felt as though she had written a sentence and then decided to pad it out with descriptive words.None of the above critcisms detracted, however, from this being a very good read.