The Island by Victoria Hislop
A bizarre mixture but all very entertaining! I admit that Love and Biology and The Whole World Over were rather fluffy but ... I was in the mood for fluffy and both had strong messages about love and life that lifted my spirits in time for Christmas!
Saplings was divine. What else would you expect from the beloved writer of Ballet Shoes, The Gemma Series and all her other wonderful works??? Incidentally, one of my favourites is The Painted Garden which I got out time and time again from my local library as a child. Saplings first shows us the very English family holidaying at the beach in 1939 - parents, four children, nanny and governess.
'Her purpose is to take a happy, successful, middle-class pre-war family - and then track in miserable detail the disintegration and devastation which war brought to tens of thousands of such families,' writes the psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Holmes in his Afterword.
It's very sad but nonetheless beautiful and I was totally lost in it. Another Persephone great!!
The Dark Quartet is based on the lives of the Bronte family. It begins with the death of their beloved Mother and the arrival of their Aunt at the parsonage. We see the elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth being sent off to a school for the daughters of clergymen where they endured hell. Both girls died of TB as a result of their time spent at the school. So the book continues with the stories of their younger siblings Branwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Totally fascinating! I've read it many times over the years and am always blown away with their story each time. Their intellect just makes me shiver! Their story is sad, only Charlotte remains alive at the end of the book, but it is also inspiring. Every time I read their story I keep on hoping that Branny will get his life in order and that his true talent will be recognized, I want Emily to let her sisters call the doctor sooner and I want Anne to be stronger - can you imagine the further great works that would have been written if death hadn't come so prematurely to this amazing group? I will be gobsmacked until the day I die that Emily wrote what has to be one of the most passionate, heart wrenching novels ever without ever really being in love. Really really recommended - worth a hunt on Ebay/Amazon!
The Island by Victoria Hislop has been on my shelf for a year. I picked it up a few times but it never grabbed me until .... just before Christmas. Oh my Goodness!! What an amazing book!! Once I got into it I found out it was one of those that you don't want to put down but wanted to make it last for as long as possible!
It begins in modern day Crete with Alexis visiting Plaka, her mother's birthplace opposite the leper colony island Spinlonga. Sophie has never really spoken about her childhood but gives Alexis permission to contact Fontini, a local who knew Sophie as a child. Fontini tells Alexis the sad sad story of Sophie's grandparents, mother and aunty. Obviously you will guess that leprosy is part of the story - the opening chapters are heartbreaking. Hislop just totally took me away and made me feel the pain of these characters. I cried ... a lot. I also smiled as there was so much love in the book. The descriptions are so vivid - I could almost hear the sea. I look forward to rereading this is a year or two and will be captivated once again by it.
2 comments:
I remember reading the Dark Quartet many years ago and not being able to put it down. I think Lyne Reid Banks is an excellent writer. She also wrote a second 'faction' about Charlotte Bronte, the name now escapes me, also good but not quite as compelling the DQ.
Glad you enjoyed Saplings. First time I read it I was not too sure about it but then I re-read it and now I think it is wonderful. HOw a family seems to survive the war OK but are damaged underneath the surface.
The Painted Garden was one of my favourites too of her children's books, also Party Frock and of course Ballet Shoes was one of my all time great reads as a child and I still love it.
Thank so so much for your visit and comment...
I am happy to read you are with me with positive thoughts and prayers. I will beat this ...xx
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