The Petrakis family lives in the small Greek seaside village of Plaka. Just off the coast is the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the nation’s leper colony once was located—a place that has haunted four generations of Petrakis women. There’s Eleni, ripped from her husband and two young daughters and sent to Spinalonga in 1939, and her daughters Maria, finding joy in the everyday as she dutifully … dutifully cares for her father, and Anna, a wild child hungry for passion and a life anywhere but Plaka. And finally there’s Alexis, Eleni’s great-granddaughter, visiting modern-day Greece to unlock her family’s past.
A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosy’s touch on an unforgettable family.
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This book gives the perspective of those who have leprocy and are forced to leave their hometown to live on a nearby island at a time before a cure is found. This is a fascinating read about how families say goodbye forever to theif loved ones and describes the new home and hometown island for the lepors. We meet wonderful characters along the …
Excellent book hunting and informative. Full of love and goodness
Gave me a view of historical events and a culture from a new perspective.
It taught me a lot about life in another part of the world and the scourge of leprosy.
Enjoyed the insight into a leper colony and the politics of it as well as the importance of family. Characters needed to be a little more dimensional.
Didn’t know where this book was heading…. Great read, wonderful characters, intense plot. Loved it and recommend it!!!!!!
Enjoyed the Greek culture and got an education regarding leprosy. Worth the read.
Wonderful story to bring shape and understanding to an area I had very little knowledge about: Greece during WWII, the history of the area Leper colony, history of the discovery of the cure for the disease. Very well written.
An interesting story that is well written. The characters are well developed and the setting in Crete is described well.
An excellent read! Worth a five star rating.
A very slow read.
This was very well written and kept me reading. It’s definitely not a “feel good” novel, but the characters are well developed. I was hooked from the start.
What a disappointment! For the first 100 or so pages, I thought I was reading a well-written book. By the page 200, it had degenerated into a romance novel. I don’t know exactly when “Theirs was a relationship that had blossomed in the rarefied microcosm of a university, but in the outside world…was a sickly cutting that failed to survive being …
Loved this story
interesting concept woven with history
A step into an unexpected world
I learned alot about leprosy and how tragic it was for the people who had it throughout history. Also about the customs of the people of Crete.
This was a very informative book about the lepor colony on a small Greek island. The relationships and history were very engaging.
This book was very interesting….I learned a lot and really felt like the author did a good job of building out the characters. I definitely Italy recommend it!
This was a great story, and a very informative book about Leprosy. It was written with such great detail, I could imagine the island and the characters who inhabited it. It was so sad to realize the stigma put on your family and to divide families when someone was shipped off to the island. I am recommending it all of those I know. I can’t wait to …