I'd read and enjoyed Penelope Todd's memoir "Digging for Spain", but I wasn't sure whether I would like "Island". It's a literary historical romance, not a mixture of genres I would generally read.

But I'm glad I did, because once I got into the story, I enjoyed it a lot. It' set on an unnamed quarantine island in late colonial times in New Zealand - I have visited Quarantine (now St Martins) Island in Otago Harbour, and the island in the book does seem a lot like that. (In fact, I think the story would have been stronger had the location and its surroundings been explicitly identified, and the fact that they were kept unspecific frustrated me at times.).

Still, that's a minor niggle. The three main characters, and a variety of minor characters, are well-delineated, and the plot becomes increasingly gripping as a major epidemic hits the island. I also enjoyed the way Penelope Todd handles the ending - the resolution is hinted at rather than fully described, but the reader is left to draw their own conclusion.

Especially considering that it's well outside what I would normally enjoy reading, I liked "Island" a lot. Recommended to fans of romance, historical fiction, and good writing. ( )

A wonderful tale with characters that get under your skin. Writing with a rich sense of landscape. ( )

This is a story set in the late 1800's on a quarantine island off the coast of New Zealand. My investigations show that there was, in fact an island called Quarantine Island off of Port Chalmers Dunedin at this time ,since renamed St Martins.
I thought this looked a promising read but was disappointed. It follows the lives of a group of nurses and a young Maori lad who swims over to see his mother, who has already died. He remains on the island for a year to take who remains back to her place of birth. Of course romance ensues. I failed to connect with the characters and plot. ( )