Over twenty years ago I holidayed on the Greek island of Crete. I spent a fortnight in the sun before heading off to university, so money was tight. My shoestring budget allowed for one trip only and I had two choices: trek the Samaria Gorge or visit the former leper colony of Spinalonga. I chose the former and loved it. But after reading The Island by Victoria Hislop, how I wish I’d had the funds to do both.
Chapter one opens in 2001 when Alexis Fielding decides to visit the village of Plaka. Her Cretan holiday is drawing to a close and she is still debating about the state of her love life.
“Theirs was a relationship that had blossomed in the rarefied microcosm of a university, but in the outside world it had withered and, three years on, was like a sticky cutting that had failed to survive being transplanted from greenhouse to border.”
We quickly discover that Ed isn’t Alexis’s only concern. Her Cretan mother Sofia refuses to talk about her past which, over the years, has created a barrier between the pair. However, in a rare display of emotion, Sofia hands Alexis a letter to give to Fotini Davaras. It isn’t until Alexis arrives in Plaka that she realises there is an island off the coastline, and it captures her imagination.
“It appeared that the raison d’etre of Plaka itself had been to act as a supply centre for the leper colony, and it intrigued Alexis that her mother had made no mention of this at all.”
It turns out that Fotini was best friends with Alexis’s great-aunt and so begins the story of The Island when Alexis’s great-grandmother, Eleni Petrakis, takes the short boat ride to Spinalonga to be forever exiled as a leper.
“Over the next few days Fontini told Alexis everything she knew about her family’s history, leaving no pebble unturned … These were days during which Alexis felt herself grow older and wiser, and Fotini, in retelling so much of her past, felt herself young again.”
Victoria Hislop has created a beautiful story that transports the reader into the lives of many characters over sixty years. Some you love and some you love to hate. The attention to detail and descriptions of Crete, Plaka, Spinalonga and Greek traditions are wonderful. You are with Eleni Petrakis as she steps out of her husband’s fishing boat and onto Spinalonga’s dock and then as she walks up through the dark tunnel and into the leper colony.
The Island is a sweeping family saga that does not shy away from grief, fear and brutality. However, it is above all a life affirming story. I highly recommend The Island by Victoria Hislop as a brilliantly executed novel that cleverly weaves historical fiction around fascinating Spinalonga and also one of the oldest, misunderstood and feared diseases – leprosy. This is an utter reading gem and one to keep on the bookshelf.