I knew based on the stunning cover and intriguing description that this would be a good book- but good is an understatement! I absolutely loved this book. The authors writing style had me eating up this book so quick. I am so thankful to have received an ARC for this title and now I definitely will read the previous title written by this author as well! Will highly recommend.

Never try to pigeonhole Allegra Goodman. She will surprise you. this prolific and wonderful writer has produced novels about Orthodox Jews, like Kaaterskill Falls and The Family Markowitz, and a story of a young (and then adolescent) girl who becomes a rock climber in Sam. This historical novel is different. It is an adventure.

Marguerite's mother died at her birth and her father has been killed in a war. At the age of 9, she becomes the ward of her cousin. This Guardian is a gambler and investor who sells her chateau and all her property, and eventually takes her to his own house in a port city, along with her nurse, Damienne who has cared for her since birth.

In an effort to claim what is now Canada for the French King, he (Roberval) sails to what is now Canada to claim it for France and to bring back riches. The ocean voyage is stormy and treacherous. Her Guardian cruelly hangs four feuding sailors. After Marguerite disobeys him and falls in love with his secretary, he punishes them by abandoning both Marguerite and Damienne, along with Auguste, (the secretary), on a small rocky island in the St. Lawrence Bay.

How the three survive, (or don't) on this lifeless stone outcropping is a fascinating adventure and very different from Goodman's other novels. The Robinson Crusoe-type tale is sometimes filled with tension. Marguerite deals with not only weather but bears and other animals. (In winter, the ocean freezes' enough to be crossed by hungry creatures from the mainland.)

Goodman's prose is such that the suspense of survival was heart=-stopping so that I sometimes had to stop reading until my heart rate dropped. But I returned because this is an impossible book to put down.

In the Acknowledgements, Goodman writes that she had read about Marguerite 20 years ago, but not written about her until recently. Whereas she writes on a computer, she wrote this one in longhand in a notebook and did not begin until Marguerite began to speak to her

The novel is truly inspired. You will find not only this gripping story but also religion, music, teaching. This is one of Goodman's best and I thank Net Galley and The Dial Press for this ARC copy to read and reviews.

This was such an interesting read! The premise of being stranded on an island caught me, and I didn't even realize it was based on a real island WITH POLAR BEARS! So that part was super cool- BUT I felt it took too long to get there, especially when that is the key premise of the novel.

The characterization was well done, and I did really like the writing, so the pacing is my only complaint.

I wanted more of her first book vs what this was. I just couldn’t get into it! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a page turner, I was very invested in Marguerite's story of survival in the 1500s, abandoned by her religiously mercurial caretaker on a Canadian island. Fascinatingly based on a true story.

I think Marguerite's inner dialogue was engaging but external dialogue between characters was stilted and robotic, characters responding to one another in clipped, rapid responses, without room to breathe or description to expand on their tone or meaning. Marguerite and Auguste only communicate in question and answer to each other, which became annoying and frustrating.

Incredibly well written, Isola transports you back in time to the life of a young noble born, but orphaned, girl. Marguerite's lands, fortune, and destiny are under the management of her cousin until she comes of age and marriage.

I felt like I was there with Marguerite and her nurse, Damienne as their lives changed drastically because of the cousin's decisions.

Isola would be a great read for a high school history class. It should spark lively discussions comparing and contrasting our times snd customs with those in the mid 1500s.

More journey, less destination.

I requested this title because of the descriptors paralleled, to me, THE VASTER WILDS by Lauren Groff.

ISOLA isn’t as isolated as I thought it might be. The narrative of Marguerite prior to her “ISOLA” put me in the same crumby stone visualization I had of O CALEDONIA or Molly Keane’s GOOD BEHAVIOUR. Was France in the early 1500’s much like the UK in the early 1900’s? I’ve created so many castles in my mind. I read so much that I transpose centuries.

The destination here is the best part. It’s very much a part of my reading life that I would gravitate to a book that I wanted to be a 16th century Newfoundland JULIE OF THE WOLVES. This book takes a long time to get there. When it does it succeeds.

If at least two of the titles I’ve bolded here interest you, then you would be an ideal reader for this book.