THE ISLAND OF MISTS AND MIRACLES: REVIEW

 

I enjoyed this little book – at just over 200 pages it’s certainly not a tome. It is an elegant offering with beautifully nuanced writing and an intriguing story line. (Review by Fiona de Goede)

 Victoria Mas’s novel The Island Of Mists And Miracles is set on a small island, at the northern tip of Brittany. 

The author manages to capture the spirit of the community, the ambience of the island and the lives of the islanders with great sensitivity and almost poetic beauty.

 In 1830 a young novice, Catherine Laboure, was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary.

 Two hundred years later, firmly under the impression that she would personally witness an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, Sister Anne accepts the mission to visit the island. 

However, once she arrives there, she realises that she is, in fact, not the intended recipient of the visitation.

Isaac, a young teenage boy who lives on the island with his father, experiences a series of visions. The news of Isaac’s sightings spread like wildfire and the islanders’ reactions vary between scepticism and belief.

When Julia, a young girl diagnosed with chronic asthma is miraculously cured, families are torn apart and tragic consequences are of course inevitable.

I enjoyed this little book – at just over 200 pages it’s certainly not a tome. It is an elegant offering with beautifully nuanced writing and an intriguing story line.

The book is translated from the French by Frank Wynne and is done so superbly. This is the second novel by Victoria Mas – she is the bestselling author of The Mad Women’s Ball, now a film. Fiona de Goede

The Island Of Mists And Miracles by Victoria Mas is published by Penguin - ISBN 978-0-8575-2937-4