Reviewed by Emma Crowley
As the hazy sun sets on golden sand, twenty-year-old Annie arrives on the stunning Sicilian island of Galatea, her father’s final wish playing heavy on her heart: she must solve the mystery of her grandmother who disappeared during World War Two. Her only clues are the delicate gold band around her wrist and directions to Villa Onda - House of the Waves - where her grandmother once lived.
As she climbs the winding road up to the cliffside villa, Annie’s path collides with handsome local fisherman, Salvo. His sea-blue eyes sparkle with recognition at her bracelet, and Annie can’t tell if it’s his warm touch or the sun-kissed villa’s vine-covered splendour that takes her breath away. Swept into the warm arms of Salvo’s family, it’s not long before she finds herself dancing the night away in the cobbled piazza and finally beginning to heal.
But one afternoon she finds an antique gramophone hidden beneath a dusty sheet in her grandmother’s bedroom. Setting the needle, she unlocks a long-buried secret… And, through Salvo’s mother, starts to unravel the truth about the bracelet and her grandmother’s heart-shattering wartime sacrifice.
With Salvo’s first kiss lingering on her lips, Annie knows she must dig deeper into the scars that haunt this beautiful island. But can her fragile new-found love with Salvo survive uncovering the truth? Will she ever be able to move on with her life until she does?
The Italian Island by Daniela Sacerdoti may be a short read but boy does the author pack an awful lot in between the pages of this intriguing story. It tells the tale of a woman’s search to discover the truth behind her heritage, to be more specific she wants to learn just who were her father’s biological parents and how has she a connection to a small island off the coast of Sicily? That island being Galatea, which seems to have magical properties and even though it is a small place, almost in a way separate from the outside world, it draws our main character Annie in as she seeks to reveal answers to the many questions she has running through her head. I initially thought this would be another historical fiction book set in and around World War Two but the war itself plays but a minor role in the overall scheme of things. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I was drawn into the story and the war itself clearly didn’t need to be the sole focus. The setting, the characters and the plot were all very real, tangible and riveting and I found this to be a great read to kick off my reading for 2022.
The brief prologue introduces us to Violet Goodman who in 1920 gives birth to a girl Mira. She had never wanted another child especially when the baby was a girl and not another boy as was expected of her. The relationship between Violet and Mira was never a good one and the same is said of Annie and her mother in the present day. The concept of the mother/daughter relationship is an important theme throughout the book but I still felt could have done with more exploration and fleshing out. On the island of Galatea whose inhabitants are very closely connected to the sea, a woman gives birth to a baby girl and you wonder just how herself and Mira may or may not go on to have future connections? In America, in the present day, Annie is floundering and all at sea having just lost her beloved father who she cared for. She feels lost and doesn’t know which way to turn. Her world is shattered, her heart is alone and even though she now has freedom she doesn’t know what to do with it.
Annie feels that no one will ever love and understand her as her father had done especially not her mother. A substantial inheritance is left to Annie and she receives a letter from her father urging her to learn more about his real parents. He knew his mother was a Mira Goodman who died in a concentration camp during the war. But beyond that details are non existent.The island of Galatea is the only clue and so Annie sets off on a journey with many surprising twists and turns and in doing so she hopes to fulfil her father’s wishes but at the same time she knows deep down that she needs to do this for herself in order to climb back from the deep chasm she finds herself in.
No doubt about it, the descriptions of the island are what make this book. Reading this book on a cold, wet, miserable winter’s day I was completely transported to an island in the middle of the sea which at first looks barren and very isolating but is in fact lush and filled with vegetation and plants and harsh volcanic rock. The houses cling to rocky outcrops and Annie finds herself arriving at Villa Onda, run by Elvira and Salvo. Salvo is very striking and his former job was an environmental engineer. They are determined to bring the villa back to life. The descriptions of the villa were amazing with so many unique statues and frescos. Mira Goodman once owned the villa and Annie feels an instant connection to the place.
The shadows of the past begin to circle around her and unexpected things happen. There is a paranormal element to this story and usually I would just scoff at things like this and find them surplus to requirements due to their incredibility but here the author really makes it work. I found the supernatural element was woven seamlessly throughout and it was a brilliant way of merging the past with the present. As Annie touches certain objects or glimpses things that aren’t there or even gets a scent of something she is transported back to the past where a fascinating story awaits her and the people of the past have been patiently waiting to share their story. I normally would have found this very far fetched but the author makes everything fit together so well that you truly believe what you are seeing unfold your eyes could well and truly have happened.
The island has a mysterious, magical and other worldly quality that has a deep and lasting impact on Annie. She has to confront her fears but also learns many important life lessons along the way. She is a contemporary girl looking for her place in the world and in order to do so she must reconnect with the past and help those find the justification they so desperately seek. The movement between the past and the present was achieved so seamlessly and the method of doing this although I was sceptical at first I soon came around to the way the author was working. Both strands of the story were very strong but for me as I have such a big fan of history and the past the story set on the island during the war years slightly won out for me. Not in any way to take from the necessity of the modern story and its importance for the book as a whole.
In the sections told from the past, we learn how Mira came to be on the island and how she feels in relation to her family and she slowly starts to learn that they have done to her. She undergoes a reawakening from a fog that has shrouded her and with the help of the island doctor Lupo she learns more about herself and her pace on the island. She casts aside the hurt she has experienced back in England and learns the way of island life and forms a strong bond with a local girl, Mimi, who works at the villa. I loved how the author used the sea and the island tradition of the byssus thread and how the women dove for the shellfish. It helped bind the two major plots of the story together and it was clear the author had done much research and was determined to include this in a satisfying way throughout the story. Mira’s story appeared at just the right junctures throughout when you felt you needed to move away from Annie and I found the scenes featuring Mira to be calming and exploratory.
Although as I have mentioned this is a short book and I found when the climax did arrive and the many layers of lies and half truths began to emerge and become unravelled, it all just happened too quickly. I became slightly confused as to specifics regarding what was going on with Mira and her extended family. I really would have loved a more detailed explanation as I found myself reading between the lines too much and even now I don’t think I have come up with satisfactory answers to some of the questions I had. This is the only slight fault I have found with this book and yes there was an element of disappointment for me as I felt it too abrupt because I had become deeply invested for the overall outcome for both Annie and Mira. But still, pushing this issue aside, The Italian Island is a very good read with an excellent sense of time and place and I really hope Daniela Sacerdoti continues to write many books set in Italy because her love and appreciation for the country really shines through from her writing and makes for a very enjoyable read.
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