The Drago Tree

By Isobel Blackthorn

Haunted by demons past and present, geologist Ann Salter seeks sanctuary on the exotic island of Lanzarote. There she meets charismatic author Richard Parry and indigenous potter Domingo, and together they explore the island.

Ann’s encounters with the island’s hidden treasures becomes a journey deep inside herself as she struggles to understand who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be.

Set against a panoramic backdrop of dramatic island landscapes and Spanish colonial history, The Drago Tree is an intriguing tale of betrayal, conquest and love, in all its forms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: StreetLib
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781922200372

Isobel Blackthorn

Isobel Blackthorn holds a PhD for her ground breaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice Bailey. She is the author of Alice a. Bailey: Life and Legacy and The Unlikely Occultist: a biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey. Isobel is also an award-winning novelist.

Reviews for The Drago Tree

[msaftich-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Drago Tree, the name and the cover appealed from the start, and then from the first page, I was in love with the beautiful prose, the elegantly constructed sentences, which promised an intelligent and insightful story, sensitively told.

I was not disappointed.

The novel is set on the island of Lanzarote, brought to life by an author who knows it intimately. With confidence, she lavishes poetic descriptions of its unique landscape, placing you there; making you feel, see and fall in love with the place.

For example, the character Ann sees from her car window: “Several calderas pimpled the land to the south-west. The lava plain, to the south of her now, rose to meet its mother, La Corona, a monolith of black in the fading light.”

The author applies her talent for intricate detail to her characters as well. The trio we focus upon are complex, flawed, vulnerable…

It is Ann’s journey we follow, and I really enjoyed the snippets of her past that were revealed to us, providing intriguing, and at times, disturbing encounters with her sister.

The island’s past and history is also heavily featured; and I could not help but champion and understand Ann’s sympathy for an island ravished by tourists, its past and culture presented in superficial and sensational ways to serve as a diversion to the damage being done to natural habitats.

Through Ann we are able to connect with what is natural, meaningful and raw – she is despite her troubled and haunting past, an idealist, an artist – a cloud catcher!

I found it a delightful and enjoyable read… the believable relationships explored in the novel developed, expanded and evolved swiftly, adding sprinkles of romance and mystery to an inner journey taking place in an exotic location.

I recommend this novel if you like superb writing and reading a novel that has something meaningful to say about people, places and life.

[elizabeth_foster-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This sensitive, introspective story, recounted with exquisite prose, takes place on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. Author Isobel Blackthorn, who lived on Lanzarote for several years, has captured well the intense, raw beauty of this small volcanic idyll. The ravages the island has endured, leaving it exposed and raw in places, mirror the protagonist's inner journey throughout the novel.

“Ahead, the bare-sided calderas loomed. They’d reached the lava plain of Timanfaya, an underworld on the overworld, the earth’s subcutaneous layer smeared upon its skin…”

Ann, a hydrologist, has come to Lanzarote to escape for a few weeks, but even here, finds that there’s no escaping the trauma bubbling up inside. She begins to write, partly as a means to come to terms with the end of a difficult marriage and a troubled relationship with her sister. Together with author friend Richard and local potter, Domingo, she wanders the island’s small villages, beaches, and cliffs. Cuts into the past are frequent, painful reminisces which often feel like sheer drops from the cliffs of the island itself, jarring and dislodging the detritus carried within, as Ann tries to reconcile her past and chart a path for the future.

“Crusting over the top with cool thoughts and detached emotions was all very well, but underneath, rattling about in that hollowed chamber, lived memories of past torments, moiling vestiges like brooding bats, poised to scream in fits of frenzy in response to any slight.”

Sometimes prickly, like the drago tree itself, Ann is nevertheless unfailingly astute, using her scientist’s acumen to seek clarity where she can. The honesty of her shrewd observations on herself, on the people around her, and on life itself, set the Drago Tree apart from other stories of its ilk and left me with much to ponder.