Book Club Blog

SYNOPSIS: Set on the island of Spinalonga, off the coast of Crete, The Island tells the story of Alexis Fieldling, a woman on the cusp of a life-changing decision.
Alexis knows little or nothing about her family's past and has always resented her mother's for refusing to discuss it, she knows only that her mother, Sofia grew up in a Plaka, small Cretan village, before moving to London. Making her first visit to Crete to see the village where her mother was born, Alexis discovers that the village of Plaka faces the small, deserted island of Spinalonga, which, she is shocked and surprised to learn was Greece's leper colony for much of the 20th century. It is here that Alexis meets Fotini an old friend of her mother, someone who, for the first time is prepared to tell her the whole tragic story of her family. What Fotini tells her is shocking and tragic, it is the story which Sofia has spent her life concealing: the story of Eleni, her great-grandmother, and of a family torn apart by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island and with the horror and pity of the leper colony which was once there, and learns too that the secrets of the past have the power to change the future...

BUKI'S THOUGHTS: I totally loved this book. I had seen it in book stores over and over again but never bought it. Last week, I heard a lady recommend it to a friend, saying it was "beautiful". I picked it up...

The first few pages were ok, then the story started (Alexis' mother finally sends her to Fotini with a letter to tell her all about what she'd been hiding) and it was everything - Really sad and shocking but there are some characters in the book that you just have to admire for their strength and courage(Georgiou - Alexis' great grandfather, whose wife Eleni is sent to Spinalonga, Maria - Alexis' Great Aunt who is just a beautiful person).

This book tells the history of how people who had leprosy were banished to an island to spend the rest of their days but the island is not all that bad... As more educated Greeks(from Athens) arrived on this island, they used their influence to make the island a better place to live.

I enjoyed this book and I know I will read it again...

I have to admit that the end was kinda abrupt, I wish she had written a little more but I would recommend this book to anyone.

I want to go to Greece! :-)

It seems like some of the books I have picked up these past few months have educated me about different cultures, religion, countries...

Kite Runner, Half of a Yellow Sun, This and some others.