Once, Upon an Island

A sixteen-year-old girl, Olivia, who feels guilty about her younger brother's death. Her mother, Evelyn, a glamorous artist. Travis, the charismatic owner of the Pink Fancy Hotel. A mysteri­ous Czechoslo­vakian widow, Sofiya. A sojourn on St. Croix, a tropi­cal island. Two love affairs. Secrets. Nazis. Ravensbrück concentra­tion camp. Conflict, jealousy, kindness, tenderness. A res­cue and a resurrec­tion. All woven together in a haunting work of liter­ary fiction set in 1966.

 

"An engaging and well-written story of a young woman discover­ing the nuances and mysteries of human relationships, love, and adulthood. Set on a beautiful Caribbean island and peppered with references to charac­ters, places, and events there, I felt like I was a confidant and witness to the emotions and experi­ences of a friend. Egan found an excellent balance between the voice of her young narrator in the time period and the perspective from years later."-Lisa Cantrell, administrator, "St. Croix Memories"



"The novel is a heart-wrenching treatise of teen angst and relation­ships damaged by trauma, set in the beautiful Virgin Islands. It gently portrays how chance-met friends can help us to deal with adversity."-J.A. Lordi, writing as Tinker Marne, author of Sunken Treachery



"A major work. All of the primary characters deserve their own novels."-Dr. Helga Schier, former executive editor, Random House