One August Night by Victoria Hislop

 

One August Night by Victoria Hislop.

Published in paperback 22nd July 2021 by Headline. Originally published in hardback 29th October 2020.

From the cover of the book:

Beloved author Victoria Hislop returns to Crete in this long-anticipated sequel to her multi-million-copy Number One bestseller, The Island.

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.

When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.

In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

Number one bestselling author Victoria Hislop returns to the world and characters she created in The Island - the award-winning novel that remains one of the biggest selling reading group novels of the century. It is finally time to be reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island... and beyond.

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One August Night is Victoria Hislop's long awaited companion novel to the best selling The Island (my review of The Island HERE).

Although described as a sequel, it actually fills in the gaps from the original book by exploring what happened between the characters Anna, her sister Maria, Anna's husband Andreas, and Andreas' cousin Manolis, in the days and months before the leper colony on Spinalonga was closed and after the fateful August night when an act of violence changed the course of their lives. In its pages, Hislop takes you right back to the heady days in beautiful Crete that saw Anna and Manolis fall in love and conduct a passionate affair that led to Anna's murder at the hands of her husband Andreas.

Inevitably, there are no huge revelations to be made in this story (bar one at the end of the book), as we already know what happened between the characters from the original novel, but what Hislop does so delightfully here is tell us in more detail about the relationship between the lovers themselves, confirming their affair as true love on both sides, and providing some understanding into the motives of them all. To complete the story, Hislop then goes on to give us an account of what happened to Manolis, and validating everything we already knew about the kind and forgiving heart of Maria as she forges a friendship with Andreas in his final desperate years incarcerated in a hell-hole prison.

It was such a delight to revisit the characters from the original novel, and also get a fascinating glimpse into bustling city life through the eyes of Manolis, as he tries to make a new life for himself in Pireas, which contrasts wonderfully with the quiet, sleepy village life in Crete - and Hislop does it all in her inimitable style, with delicious detail that lets you feel you are actually at the side on her characters as they walk through the streets where they live, work and play. Incidentally, we get a shocking glimpse at the conditions of prisoners being held in prison at the time, and the disturbing treatment of those who try to visit them too.

This gave me a very enjoyable afternoon's reading pleasure in the sunshine, reminding me just how much I loved The Island, and how much I miss spending time in the Greek islands. This really is a book you can only appreciate after you have read The Island, because it is based on detailed knowledge of events and relationships that you can only garner by immersing yourself in the original sweeping novel - and it's marvellous, so why wouldn't you? Grab yourself a slice of something nice and revisit old friends - but make sure you read The Island first!

One August Night is available now in hardback, paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Headline for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller and a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. The Island has sold over 1.2million copies in the UK and more than 5 million worldwide.

Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, which inspired her second bestseller The Return, and she returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki in The Thread, shortlisted for a British Book Award and confirming her reputation as an inspirational storyteller. It was followed by her much-admired Greece-set short story collection, The Last Dance and Other Stories. The Sunrise, a Sunday Times Number One bestseller about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, was published to widespread acclaim in 2014. Victoria’s most recent book, Cartes Postales from Greece was a Sunday Times Number One bestseller and one of the Top Ten biggest selling paperbacks of 2017. Her novels have sold 10 million copies worldwide.