THE ISLAND

The Island by Hislop, Victoria on 10/04/2006 Later printing edition
                       

-Heya,been a long time no blogging.Lots of exams,not enough time to read and blog.But,hey,i graduated on SLP so im full of motivation and positive energy.

- This time i went for an easy-peasy novel which i randomly picked.

It's name is 'The Island',written by Victoria Hislop.The novel is the winner of the "Galaxy British Book Awards".

A really page-turning tale that reminds all of us that love and life continue in even the most extraordinary of circumstances.

Vivid,moving and absorbing,with it's sensitive and realistic engagement attached to leprosy in Crete,elevating it beyond holiday literature.  

-Set on the island of Spinalonga,off the coast of Crete,and on the village of Plaka which lies within the swimming distance across the bay from it.It tells the story of 25th years old girl,named Alexis Fielding.She knows little or maybe nothing about her family's past so beacuse of that she and her boyfriend go to  a trip in Greece,to see where her mother used to live. She firstly found out that the village of Plaka faces the small  and deserted island of Spinalonga and got shocked when she learned it had been Greece's leper colony.There she met her a really old friend of her mother's named Fotini ready to tell the tragic story of her mum's family.It had been a story that Alexi's mum had been concealing for so long.

-The story of Eleni,her grandmother whom she was married to Giorgis's a really calm and hardworking man.How Eleni got infected with leprosy and how she was split from her family and sent to Spnalonga island,a leprosy colony,the place where she as well died of the disease.

-Anna its the daughter of the couple,to whom she married a rich guy,Andreas Vandolukakis,A really bad luck was destined also for her as she betrayed her husband with his brother Manoli with whom she made a baby Sofia.Her destiny was shot dead by her husband when he found out.

-Maria is the other daughter of the couple,to whom she was about to marry with Manoli but it never happened as she got infected from leprosy as well.Spinalonga was where she lived for the next years until she fell in love with the doctor 'Kyritsis'.who also found out the cure for all of the Spinalonga's colony,Maria as well.These were the couple who decided to adopt Sofia.

-Sofia-the adopted 'orphan' as soon as the got 18,her parents told about her real story and was she who left the island and never meeting her aunt and his husband.She got married to a British boy and they gave life to Alexis.

-Apparently,this girl found out how intimately connected she was to this island and with the horror and pity of the leper colony which was once there,and learns too that 'The secrets of the past have  the power to change the future'.

• They continued to say nothing of their feelings towards each-other and there was an elementt of magic in their silence.It had the perfect fragility of a soap bubble rising into the sky,so visible,so multicolored..,but best left untouched!

• Holding her round the waist,he now inhaled the indescribably sensual smell of her sweat,an essence of more intoxicating sweetness than anything he had ever breathed in before.Crushed lavender and rose petals would not compare!

-I started this book 2 weeks ago,at the beach and thought maybe it would take me sometime to finish it as im not really into fiction novels.Firstly it took a while to introduce and get into the real storyline but than it got fascinating.A really great story about family history and personal discovery.I felt like the end wrapped up a little bit quickly but it was interesting and just the way i had expected.Although it read like someone else was telling the story (Fotini),rather than experiencing the events, it worked either way.
I would recommend it to everyone because it is perfectly based on true study researches and the description was brilliantly detailed.A very tragic story but really informative indeed and such an inspiring way to visit Crete,the island of Spinalonga as well  :)

                                                                          Till next time..,

                                                                                                 Shejla