The island - victoria hislop

Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mothers past.

When she decides to visit her mothers native Crete, she discovers her great-grandmother and a family rent by tragedy, war, and a secrecy that holds them all in its powerful grip.

The Petrakis family lives in the small Greek seaside village of Plaka.

Just off the coast is the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the nations leper colony once was located--a place that has haunted four generations of Petrakis women.

Theres Eleni, ripped from her husband and two young daughters and sent to Spinalonga in 1939, and her daughters Maria, finding joy in the everyday as she dutifully cares for her father, and Anna, a wild child hungry for passion and a life anywhere but Plaka.

And finally theres Alexis, Elenis great-granddaughter, visiting modern-day Greece to unlock her familys past.

A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosys touch on an unforgettable family.