The Island: A Novel [Paperback]

Elin Hilderbrand (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 2011

Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.

It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.

But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known. It's a summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell, filled with the heartache, laughter, and surprises that have made her page-turning, bestselling novels as much a part of summer as a long afternoon on a sunny beach.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this steamy woman's novel from Hilderbrand (The Castaways), recently divorced Birdie Cousins is busy planning the September wedding of her older daughter, Chess, at the family house on Tuckernuck, a privately owned island near Nantucket. Birdie hopes to spend some quality time with Chess on Tuckernuck in July, but then Chess breaks her engagement to her consummate Ivy League golden boy fiancé, Michael Morgan. Michael fatally plunges off a Utah crag just when Birdie acquires her own new beau--a married man with a wife stricken with Alzheimer's. Birdie, Chess, and their support team--Birdie's computer-guru younger daughter, Tate, and Birdie's bohemian widowed sister, India--hare off to Tuckernuck. There hunky handyman Barrett Lee flutters hearts and dampens underwear in a breathless month of supercharged estrogenic imbalances. This never-never land portrait of the rich and randy will please those looking for a satisfying beach read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The story flows as gently as a summer breeze, carrying the listener to its refreshing conclusion." (AudioFile Magazine on A Summer Affair ) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (March 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316043885
• ISBN-13: 978-0316043885
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (169 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#79 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

#79 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars More Smart and Fun Chick Lit from Elin Hilderbrand April 6, 2010

By B. A. Chaney VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"The Island" follows a family of four women as they spend a month on Tuckernuck, a remote island off the coast of Nantucket. The women are two sets of sisters, Birdie and India, and Birdie's two daughters, Chess and Tate. The trip emerges in the midst of Chess' broken engagement and the tragic death of her ex-fiance. Although the women arrive on Tuckernuck hoping the quiet and remote place will heal Chess, each of the four women finds a type of healing and rebirth on the island that they had never expected.

This is another excellent offering of smart chick lit from Elin Hilderbrand. The novel is told from the rotating perspectives of the four women, which gives the reader the opportunity to identify with each of the women and her story. Each of the women has her own internal demons that she must overcome on the island--from Chess' anguish over her fiance, to India's memories of her famous husband, to Tate's uncertainty at first love, and Birdie's challenge of starting again after a difficult divorce. The different experiences of the four women gives every reader a character that she can identify with, and makes for an never dull read.

If you are a fan of Hilerbrand's brand of smart and fun women's fiction, this is a novel for you. It's light enough for a beach read but with enough genuine emotion and real life to suck you in for this genuine good read.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Chicks Lit May 2, 2010

By Steven James

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The Island was a really well-written, interesting take on 4 women's month at their family beach house on Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket. The two sisters, their mother and aunt spend their summer getting to know each other better and more importantly, getting to know themselves. Each woman brings her own unique set of problems and issues and the stories interweave and make for a heartfelt summer at the shore. Each story grabs your heart and twists with a vengeance. I found myself rooting for each of these fine ladies and wanting the best for them. They seemed like people I have known in my own life and I hated that they all had internal (and not so interal) struggles. The mother in this book could have been my own, with her desire to fix everyone's problems and then cook a big meal afterwards. I have never read anything by Elin Hilderbrand before but I plan on searching out her earlier novels and reading them all. I am an educated, 40-something-year-old man and I refuse to categorize this book as chick-lit. It's not exactly "dude-lit" either. I think it would be more aptly called "summer-lit" because this is a book I would want to read while on a sunny vacation, preferably at a locale very much like Tuckernuck Island.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of depressing June 5, 2010

By Kathy VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is the story of Birdie, her two daughters and her sister, who spend a month at their family home on Tuckernuck Island in Massachusetts. All of the women except one of the daughters is going through a romantic crisis of some sort, so they feel that a month away from it all will help. I could really only relate to Birdie's problems. She's divorced and is dating an older man whose wife has Altzheimer's Disease. Her daughter, Chess, is mourning the death of her fiancee, who she never really loved and didn't want to marry from the start, so I couldn't figure out why she had even been with him to begin with. I couldn't feel sorry for her. The mother's sister, India, has recovered from the suicide of her husband and is contemplating a lesbian love affair.

The bright spot of the book is the youngest daughter, Tate, and her relationship with the caretaker at the house on the island. He's known the family since they were young and their relationship was fun and nice. But, the lightness of this relationship was ruined by the older sister's jealousy of her sister's happiness, so that was a little upsetting.

I thought I might like reading about the island and get kind of a feel for what it was like, but the writing was not very descriptive at all. At least it wasn't for me. At the end of the book, the author says that it was difficult to write about Tuckernuck because it is pretty desolate, so maybe another location would have been a better choice for a novel.

I would say that if you already know this author and like her books, you might like this book too. If not, and you are looking for a light summer read, you might want to look for something else. This was pretty much a story about unhappy women in a boring place.