It was an eye-opener to realise that leprosy was so recently an incurable disease. Life on Spinalonga was fascinating, and, ironically, an escape from the atrocities of WWII. But unfortunately the book was not a well written account and this spoilt the read for me.
I would have preferred to have cut out the clumsy structure of the book as a young girl's search into her mother's hidden history and concentrated on life for a leper as it was in the first half of the twentieth century.
It was scope for such a wonderful tale, centering around the leper island and the neighbouring mainland, but it had an unbelievable element to it.
Having said that, our book group gave it a hesitant seal of approval simply because it caused us to think about an horrendous disease that changed people's lives so dramatically up until quite recently.

I shall now go and find a copy of Under Their Skin by Dinah Kung as recommended by several other reviewers.

I really loved this book!
I liked reading about the Greek islands and had been to see the leper colony on Molokai in Hawaii so I had a foundation for what it was like to go through this disease.

A serious read with many sub plots. The story takes place on the island of Crete and one of its Islands. It is truely an unexpected saga that one would not expect from a mordern author. It is truely a wonderful book.

Great for a mental escape. Beautiful description of the countryside and interesting characters.

I liked all the characters and I learned about the disease leprosy and life in a leper colony. It made you feel for the suffering of these people in those times and how that diagnosis changed their lives forever. It wasn't all pessimistic and sad though. Crete is a different and interesting setting for a story.

My mother told me that I had to read this book. I then selected it for my book club. Everyone loved it. You not only learned something about leprosy, but of a family's faith in one another!

A perfect summer read. It was enjoyable and romantic although at times unbelievable. I liked it and will recommend.

None of the group loved it. But the group did find Spinalonga to be very interesting. We felt that there could have been more development of many of the characters in the book and also some felt the book dull and slow moving. Our discussion led us to discussing Aids in the 80's and 90's and our reaction to those who were affected by it. We also discussed our parents' generation and how they tended to keep things so much more secretive than we do these days.

We had a lively discussion about lepers and the way they were treated because of the unknown. We branched beyond the book to learn more as a group and individuals. Everyone liked the book very much.