The Island

Written by Victoria Hislop

Narrated by Sandra Duncan

The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006 from Victoria Hislop is a dramatic tale of four generations, rent by war, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties, through the war, to the present day.
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her 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. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears 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. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip...

(P)2006 Headline Digital

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette UK Audio
• Release date: Sep 25, 2006
• ISBN: 9780755337903

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.

Reviews for The Island

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Island is Victoria Hislop’s debut novel and is set on the island of Crete. The book covers the lives and loves of a number of generations of women from one family and covers much of the 20th century. It opens in the present as Alexis comes to Crete both on a holiday with her boyfriend and to search out the story of her family on her secretive mother’s side. What she finds is a strange history of leprosy, adultery, and murder. She also finds that the women in her family have been strong, loyal and caring. I loved the story and was intrigued by all the information about leprosy and the small community of Spinalonga where lepers were sent to live away from the general population. Spinalonga is a tiny island just off the coast of Crete, it was a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. This terrible, misunderstood disease was a living death sentence as victims were shunned and forced away from their families and homes. Considered “unclean” a leper was unwelcome wherever they went. Spinalonga was, for many, a refuge. Here they could live in relative peace, had access to doctors, and the company of others afflicted by the disease.The story draws the reader in with it’s wonderful descriptions, strong characters and moving story-line. There were some flaws to the book mostly in the predictability of the family saga and some overload of information, but her research was excellent and I learned a lot about the disease of leprosy and fell in love with the island of Crete. Overall The Island was well worth my time invested in the reading.

[roarer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A remarkable novel that not only reads well as a story, but opens a window to the world before antibiotics.

[scot2-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lovely book. After I started reading it I realized that I had read it before a few years ago. However, it was just as enjoyable the second time. Sad/happy-a feel good book.

[paulmorriss · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This had great reviews quoted on it, but I found it lacked something, though I kept reading until the end. I couldn't put my finger on what was missing really.

[smits_52 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bauernfeind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful. A great insight into the lives of individuals struck with such a devastating disease. Told through several generations of Greek citizens in a costal town next to an island where people with leprosy were incarcerated for lack of a better word, this story weaves its way through the research and development of a cure for the disease and the impact both the disease and the cure had on this small village.

[gmomaj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Historical novel about Crete and an ancient disease, leprosy, and it's impact from biblical times until its cure. April 2016 selection of Reading Club, most members really enjoyed book, felt the story was well told, characters well developed, we learned things about this ancient disease that we didn't know, and are interested in reading other books by author. Major criticism was they wanted more details about the island community of lepers and life there.

[steve38 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A formula pot boiler. Would have been well suited to the Mills and Boon imprint. The only reason I read it was that we'd visited Spinalonga on holiday. Not really worth the trouble.

[markbarnes_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[lexieconyngham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

 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.

[anglersrest_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[tarb_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mmignano11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[grnpickle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ecumenicalcouncil · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[fluffyblue_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ilurvebooks_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[womansheart_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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. ***

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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'

[elliepotten · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[dwate_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[write4senthil · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[watfordsupporter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[signoraedie_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting story but very simplistic writing. I wanted more from the author.

[lucylocket_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[californiareader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[littleknife · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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..

[susan139 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mzonderm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.