"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.
A real-life journey through the fantastical world of The Odyssey
It started with a boy, of course. Seeking solace from the pain of heartbreak and her father's illness, Laura Coffey embarks on what was meant to be a simple holiday. But her newfound fascination with ancient Greek myths transforms her trip into a six-month odyssey, around tiny archipelagos and mystical Mediterranean islands thought to be the setting of Odysseus's epic journey. As she chases one of the most conflicted, flawed and yet beloved heroes through his fantastical sea-kingdoms, looking for the places where geography and mythology collide, she discovers the wild beauty of the islands, and the redemptive powers of travel and nature, cold-water swimming, long hikes up mountains, and luminous star-lit skies.
But her quest to find happiness, safety and the true meaning of home is overshadowed by the deepening illness of her father. Returning as he's dying, forced to confront the very things she was running from, Laura reflects on what she has lost, how to live between story and reality, and the way we craft our own mythologies. Slipping between the mythical realm and the real world, she finds enchantment and healing in the magic of both.
Enchanted Islands features in the following genres: Debut Books of the Month, Debuts, Biographies & Autobiographies, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Travel, Memoirs, Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Coping with / advice about death and bereavement, Travel writing, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Memoirs, Philosophy and Religion, Religion and beliefs, Ancient religions and Mythologies, Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Family and health, Coping with / advice about personal, social and health topics, Coping with / advice about death and bereavement, Travel writing
Enchanted Islands is available in Paperback, Hardback
Enchanted Islands was written by Laura Coffey and published by Summersdale
Enchanted Islands has 281 pages
£9.89
