"Emulating The Odyssey, this magical memoir shares the author’s transformative island journey through heartbreak to healing."
A lyrical blend of memoir and literary travelogue, Laura Coffey’s Enchanted Islands recounts the author’s voyage of self-discovery around myth-infused Mediterranean islands in the wake of heartbreak, after becoming immersed in a new translation of The Odyssey.
While Coffey’s journey “started with a boy, like it always does”, it’s quick to become, and lead to, so much more. First there’s news of her father’s illness, and the need to heal herself, alongside an ever-present compulsion to find the meaning of home, and to feel at home. And so, an ordinary holiday turns out to be anything but that, as Coffey extends a short trip into a six-month exploration of several magical Mediterranean islands — from Sicily and Croatia’s Korčula, to Menorca — all the while relishing the restorative power of natural landscapes that shaped epic myths, and birthed epic heroes and heroines.
Beautifully bittersweet as it balances personal experiences with sweeping, big-picture mythological scope, and intertwines raw realities with poetry and legend, Enchanted Islands is, fittingly, an enchanting memoir of love, loss and finding new directions through tumultuous seas.
