Read in 2012 - 13: The Island

Once again, it was Mary, my mother-in-law, who provided me with reading material to last me a while; when my sister and I recently spent a week in England, she had a pile of books ready for me to take home, and I had to make use of my sister's suitcase as well as my own in order to get everything in.

The first one from the pile I read was "The Island" by Victoria Hislop.

It is mainly the story of a family who are hit by tragic events, such as two of their members contracting leprosy, one being murdered and all that against the backdrop of a life of general hardship in a small fishermen's village on Crete in the years before, during and after WWII.

Today's frame is provided by a young woman who finally wants to find out more about her mother's past; she knows her mother grew up on Crete before coming to England, where she married and had children, but other than that, very little is revealed, and strangely enough, never really questioned by her family until now.

The young woman travels to the village she knew her mother spent part of her childhood in, and meets an elderly lady who knew her family very well. A letter the woman takes to this lady from her mother instructs her to tell the young woman everything she wants to know.

That in itself is strange; if I had a dark secret in my past, I would want to be the one to reveal it, if I thought it appropriate and/or necessary; I certainly would not have anyone else tell what could always only be their side of the story, however intimate they'd known me and my folks in the past.
Also, none of what comes to light about the family has any negative reflection on the woman who chose to conceal her past so completely; so one really wonders why she took all that trouble and was so secretive. On the contrary, it should have made her proud to tell of those of her family members who had, against all odds, created happy, fulfilled lives for themselves and gave her a loving home when her own parents could not.

But, that and some other rather illogical things aside (real life and real people are often illogical, so it is hardly a point to be overly critical about), the story itself is very well done and the places and characters captured well enough to set the mental cinema in motion.

Spinalonga, where most of the story happens, was a leper colony until the late 1950s. The author of this book has, I am sure, travelled there personally and done a lot of research to get the facts right, because it all sounds plausible. There are pictures and information about the island on this website; it certainly enhanced my reading experience.

The author's website is here; I always like to know a bit more about the person who wrote what I read, don't you?

To summarise, "The Island" is a good read, the story takes some rather unexpected twists and turns while other things are a bit too predictable, but everything I found out about Spinalonga was certainly worth it. That colony of outcasts and the island itself combine two things that hold great appeal to me: the art of Making Do, and an abandoned place that is being reclaimed by nature (more or less - Spinalonga has remained uninhabited since the colony was closed, but tourists are regularly ferried there. Some buildings have been reconstructed, and there is a small museum about the history of the desease and the colony itself.).