AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 3123089785103252023.jpg
This image has been sourced from Goodreads.com
y separately published work icon To the Island single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 To the Island
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In search of her father Andreas, whom she has never met, Lena travels with her small son from Australia to Greece. On the island of Naxos she finds him, a wary, tormented man living in self-imposed exile. Slowly Lena unlocks the secrets of her father's past, and in getting to know him begins to understand the grim realities of contemporary Greek history. Like many politically active Greeks, Andreas was arrested and tortured during the rule of the Colonels in the sixties, disappearing for several years without trace.

To the Island is a book about the impact of larger political events on the lives of ordinary people, and how political and personal betrayals reverberate across generations. It beautifully evokes the currents and cross-currents between individuals, within families and in broader society. And in Lena and Andreas's stories, it shows how difficult it is to confront our personal and collective pasts - and the terrible consequences of being unable to do so.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Francis

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Granta ,
      2011 .
      image of person or book cover 3123089785103252023.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads.com
      Extent: 261p.
      ISBN: 9781847081810
Alternative title: Naar het eiland
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Artemis & Co ,
      2012 .
      image of person or book cover 4043730289876916132.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads.com
      Extent: 240p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1st May 2012.
      ISBN: 9789047202745

Works about this Work

The Internationalists : Australian Writers and Contemporary Greece Anne Pender , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'The expatriate Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders and Americans who lived on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1950s and ’60s were a mix of fiction writers, poets, musicians, painters, journalists and photographers. Politically, many of them would have described themselves as internationalists. George Johnston wrote his novel My Brother Jack (1964) while he and Charmian Clift lived on Hydra, and with it he said he rediscovered Australia.

'The contemporary Australian writers Susan Johnson and Meaghan Delahunt have each been inspired in their own work by the fiction and memoir of Johnston and Clift. Both Johnson and Delahunt have spent long periods of their lives as expatriates themselves, living in the UK and other parts of Europe. In spite of the achievements of Johnson and Delahunt as novelists, their writing has been largely overlooked by critics. This article examines their work in relation to expatriatism, internationalism and the politics of contemporary Europe.

'The article examines Susan Johnson’s reimagining of the lives of George Johnston and Charmian Clift in The Broken Book (2004) in 2019, 50 years after Clift’s death. It also explores Delahunt’s To the Island (2011), which is set on Naxos. The essay articulates the ways in which Johnson and Delahunt have internationalised Australian literature as a direct result of their expatriate experiences.' (Publication abstract)

Well Read Katharine England , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 September 2011; (p. 29)

— Review of Empire Day Diane Armstrong , 2011 single work novel ; To the Island Meaghan Delahunt , 2011 single work novel
Well Read Katharine England , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 September 2011; (p. 29)

— Review of Empire Day Diane Armstrong , 2011 single work novel ; To the Island Meaghan Delahunt , 2011 single work novel
The Internationalists : Australian Writers and Contemporary Greece Anne Pender , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'The expatriate Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders and Americans who lived on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1950s and ’60s were a mix of fiction writers, poets, musicians, painters, journalists and photographers. Politically, many of them would have described themselves as internationalists. George Johnston wrote his novel My Brother Jack (1964) while he and Charmian Clift lived on Hydra, and with it he said he rediscovered Australia.

'The contemporary Australian writers Susan Johnson and Meaghan Delahunt have each been inspired in their own work by the fiction and memoir of Johnston and Clift. Both Johnson and Delahunt have spent long periods of their lives as expatriates themselves, living in the UK and other parts of Europe. In spite of the achievements of Johnson and Delahunt as novelists, their writing has been largely overlooked by critics. This article examines their work in relation to expatriatism, internationalism and the politics of contemporary Europe.

'The article examines Susan Johnson’s reimagining of the lives of George Johnston and Charmian Clift in The Broken Book (2004) in 2019, 50 years after Clift’s death. It also explores Delahunt’s To the Island (2011), which is set on Naxos. The essay articulates the ways in which Johnson and Delahunt have internationalised Australian literature as a direct result of their expatriate experiences.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 21 Jun 2021 15:05:11
Settings:
  • Naxos, Greek islands,
    c
    Greece,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X