The Island by Victoria Hislop.

                The Island by Victoria Hislop.

"A single shot ricocheted across the water, the noise amplified by the echo from the mountains behind, and a crimson blanket spread itself slowly across the still sea." 

Spinalonga was a former leper colony where people were exiled from 1903-1957 in northern Crete. During the second world war the Germans occupied the island as well as allied forces. Hislop has combined history with fiction, presenting the reader with a moving portrayal of four generations of one family blighted by leprosy, war and its legacy.

Alexis Fielding is 25, working in a museum and likely to follow in her father's footsteps in archaeology. Ed was her boyfriend of 3 years and what was once a promising affair has now turned sour "like a sickly cutting that had failed to survive being transplanted from greenhouse to border." They were meant to be on holiday but conflict, arguments and lots of self-reflection amounted to doubts over suitability and compatibility. Curiosity about her mother, Sofia who was born on the island of Crete resulted in Alexis trekking to Plaka to find a family friend called Fortini who hopefully would unravel the family history which  inevitably meant unearthing the skeletons in the closet, a disclosure that knocked Alexis for six!

From 2001 the story reverts to 1939 with Alexis's great grandparents and the tragic revelation that her great grandmother Eleni had developed the virulent strain of leprosy and was condemned to the place of the living dead, Spinalonga to end her days in suffering and torment before being laid to rest in a communal and unmarked grave. Ironically, fate dealt another severe blow when one of Eleni's daughter, Maria was diagnosed with the same disease as her mother and followed a similar fate almost in 1953. Timing was cruel-she was about to celebrate her marriage to a local Romeo whe she was exiled to the rock as it was called. Fortunately there were doctors researching the disease and a cure was eventually found, although it was too late for those who had succumbed to the disease.

When the Germans arrived during the 40s they committed murder and mutilation destroying villages and its inhabitants fearing the Allied forces and the Resistance which proved a threat to their occupation of Crete. They threatened to exterminate all male inhabitants of the villages aiding the Allies. A young male leper from the island was brutally murdered trying to swim to Plaka to celebrate his son's 3rd birthday in the late summer of 1943. Obviously, they were nervous of leprosy spreading and wanted it contained on Spinalonga.

Fortini is thorough and yet sensitive as she retells stories about the lives of those affected by jealousy and betrayal in hard times when the war added an extra strain of misery.

"Our so called fate is largely ordained by our ancestors, not by the stars." Three generations of lives were so intertwined. Eleni and Maria's sad fate was the tip of the iceberg.  Pandora regretted opening her box. Would it be the same for Alexis when she discovered what happened to her grandmother Anna and her husband?

Alexis is certainly shocked by what she hears but matures and consequently grows closer to her mother and these revelations have the added bonus of helping her to decide on her future with Ed. It's a wonderful story, deep and fulfilling. It deserves a read. What do you expect from Victoria Hislop other than quality reading? Quality.

Publisher: Headline.   ISBN: 978-0-7553-0951-1

Copyright 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced in any kind of form.