From the bestselling author of The Moonlit Garden comes the sweeping, romantic tale of one woman’s quest across two continents and one hundred years of history to unearth her family’s deepest secret.Diana Wagenbach is the sole survivor in a withering family tree fraught with secrets. When the first in a trail of clues is handed down to Diana by her great-aunt on her deathbed, along with a plea to … deathbed, along with a plea to assuage their family’s guilt by revealing all, Diana obliges. She follows the clues—a picture here, a letter there, a pressed frangipani flower in a book—that carry her away from her philandering husband in Berlin to a charming manor in England and all the way to a tea plantation in Sri Lanka.
Diana unravels the dramatic tale of her great-great-grandmother, Grace Tremayne, with the aid of Jonathan Singh, a local historian and writer—and someone with whom she feels a deep bond that sparks into romance. As Grace’s tragic past in exotic colonial Ceylon is revealed and the family’s sins come to light, Diana finds inspiration in her ancestor’s courage and begins to rethink what happiness—and love—is worth, and how the surest route to peace is in setting the truth free.
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Held my attention and I didn’t want to put it down. Now I’m even dreaming about the story and it’s characters.
A fascinating novel with secrets, forbidden love and betrayal that transpire on a tea plantation. This was a mesmerizing dual story, set a century apart, that was wonderfully transporting. For me, the centerpiece was the luxuriously rich history and culture of the late 1800s within an exotic atmosphere surrounding a tea plantation in Ceylon. As the story slips between the modern day protagonist searching for clues to unlock family secrets of her ancestors’ life on the tea plantation, lots of little treasures added to the enjoyment and intrigue. I loved the discussion about the harvest seasons of tea and the timing and the qualities of each flush. The exotic butterflies, a dancing cobra, elephants, monkeys, fruits and spices gave it an authentic feel. One of the more intriguing parts was the palm leaf library with the Brahman’s fortune telling and discovering how the prophesy would play out. The story and atmosphere of Butterfly Island was a fantastic reading experience!
Butterfly Island by author Corina Bomann and translator Alison Layland is a wonderful story which is written layered in time, history, and characters past and present. The story is beautifully written and the imagery of the places was very integral to the telling of the multi-generational story. I did not understand fully about the books title, Butterfly Island, until I was in part two. During the telling of the story you will be in several places in Europe, from Berlin, to London, and to Sri Lanka. You will read of a beautiful tea plantation and of ancient customs which were thought to be forgotten.
This book is best read when you are in a mood for a slower paced novel. This is an experience which is telling a family story, reaching back to find answers to a family mystery, and helping the present day Diana Wagenbach discover secrets about her family history.
As I read the book I made a short notation of some of the characters so I could keep the family connections straight. This might be helpful for other readers as well.
The story opens with a letter to Grace from her younger sister Victoria which was written about 1888. Something has happened to separate the sisters. Then in the 1945 prologue we meet Beatrice (a granddaughter of Grace) requesting shelter at the home of Daphne Stanwick, (daughter of Victoria) an aunt she has never met and Emily, a cousin. Beatrice is pregnant, her mother and husband have been killed during the war and she is in need of help.
In chapter one it is 2008 and we meet Diana, ( a great niece of Emily) and her unfaithful husband Philipp. Diana receives a call that her aunt Emily in London has suffered a stroke. Aunt Emily has asked that Diana come to see her while she is still able to speak.
We find out there is a secret which needs to be told.
I enjoyed this story and felt emotionally connected to some of the characters before their story had been told.