Buchtipp aus der Stadtbibliothek: The Island

Alexis wants to learn about the past that her mother never talked about. It’s a journey of discovery when she visits her deceased grandmother’s best friend, Fotini, in Plaka on the island of Crete. The story unfolds. Eleni, the beloved schoolteacher of Plaka, develops symptoms of lep­rosy and is ­shipped to the lep­er colony on Spinalonga, an island just a few miles from Plaka across the strait. What she finds is a desolate, impover­ished community of people waiting to die until a boatload of wealthy, prominent Athenians diagnosed with leprosy arrives. The newcomers and existing residents eventually band together to create a flourishing community of people who struggle together to not just survive but thrive in their isolation. Eleni has two daughters, Anna and Maria, and much of the story centers on these two women, the grandmother and aunt of Alexis. Fotini poignantly tells the story of the previous two generations of Alexis’ family, including the fact that both Eleni and Maria were lep­ers, what Alexis’ mother desperately wanted to forget.

Victoria Hislop. The Island. Headline ­Review. 2005.