Enchanted Islands
A Mediterranean Odyssey – A Memoir of Travels through Love, Grief and Mythology
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Enchanted Islands
Narrated by:
Laura Coffey
Buy Now for ₹649.64
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Narrated by:
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Laura Coffey
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Written by:
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Laura Coffey
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.
"If you love memoir and Greek mythology, this is a delight. A spellbinding book about growing up, grieving and the gods." - Clare Pollard, author of Delphi
(P) 2024 Octopus Publishing Group Limited
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Critic Reviews
Laura Coffey's personal Odyssey is a magical and hugely captivating journey into journeys. Like the original Odyssey and all that follow it, Enchanted Islands is about finding one's way home. But the adventures on the way are filled with such beauty, wonder and surprise. The journey changes the meaning of the destination. A simply marvellous read, hugely recommended.
If you love memoir and Greek mythology (as I do) this is a delight. Coffey escapes a grim and lonely pandemic for volcanos and orange-blossom brioche, kingfishers and tales of Circe. But life lies ready to sting, like the Medusa jellyfish she encounters on her evening swims. A spellbinding book about growing up, grieving and the gods.
The Odyssey is the perfect guide for this bold and personal, honest and witty journey of reflection and discovery, grief and recovery.
Numinous - like Cezanne's oranges, this is full of the magic of daily realities. A journey that proposes a way to navigate between the sadness and joy of our complex lives.
Enchanted Islands beautifully captures the places where the distant past pushes up against the immediate present. Coffey takes us with her on a sensory tour of the islands of the Mediterranean, enhanced by charming inclusions of mythology and history. You can feel the cool of the October sea and taste the bittersweet burn of well-sugared espresso. Coffey's skill as a travel guide does not end there, however. The inclusion of her father's end-of-life experience elevates and centers the story, taking the reader on an exploration of that most mysterious of countries - grief.
I read Laura's journey in a single day. An intimately shared voyage of grief and hope - stunning!
Blimey. This is one of the most gorgeously written books I've had the pleasure of reading for a long time - hats off to Laura Coffey. Enchanted Islands is filled with honesty, humility, vulnerability and wit. It's a portrait of tragedy, that though steeped in sadness, doesn't feel heart-stopping in its pain - rather it feels human and humane. It's a portrait of travel, past and present, and of loneliness and connection at a time when those two themes dominated the world, yet were so hard to name or explain.
I raced through this book, heart hammering, in a single sitting. It's about a death, and about the pandemic, love and loss and yearning. But as much, if not more, it's a book about the joyful, agonising, complicated business of being alive. The words sing of sun on the skin, of cold water and ripe fruit. The ideas are profound, the language exquisite.
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