Culion Island is a lush Filipino paradise boasting sparkling blue water, sweet-smelling flowers, trees hanging with ripe fruit, and a peaceful quiet.  It should be overrun with eager beachgoers.  But, high on a cliff, an eagle made of white flowers warns outsiders to keep away from Culion.  It's a one-way island; people can come, but no one ever leaves.  Those who are "touched" with leprosy are brought to Culion to keep them isolated while their bodies slowly deteriorate and die from the contagious disease.  

Amihan "Ami" Tala was born on Culion after her pregnant mother was diagnosed with leprosy and brought to the island.  Although the 12-year-old is herself untouched, the leper colony is her home—everything she's ever known and loved.  She has no desire to leave.  When Narciso Zamora, a sneering government official, comes to Culion to enforce new segregation laws, which will force the "clean" away from the "unclean," everyone is shocked.  Not only will many new sufferers be brought to the island, but the untouched children will be forced to leave.  Although the policy is supposed to be for the children's benefit, Ami cannot see how being taken from her mother and their tight-knit community could possibly be a good thing.  

With little choice in the matter, Ami is sent to an orphanage on nearby (but not near enough) Coron Island.  Subject to Mr. Zamora's cruelty and teasing from the other children, Ami knows she can't stay.  Together with a new friend, she vows to return to her home, no matter what it takes.  Can she get back to Culion safely?  With her mother's health declining rapidly, will Ami make it home in time?  Will she be allowed to stay?

I'm familiar with Moloka'i, Hawaii's famous leper colony, but I had never heard of Culion before, even though it held the largest leprosarium in the world for decades, starting in about 1906.  In The Island at the End of Everything, Kiran Millwood Hargrave brings the place to vivid life.  Through the eyes of Ami, she helps readers see and understand what it must have been like for Culion's residents when the government began enforcing divisive policies that separated spouses, families, and friends.  The tension makes for an intriguing but heartbreaking story.  Ami is a sympathetic heroine for whom it's easy to root.  Her story is filled with terror, adventure, and suspense, which keeps The Island at the End of Everything from getting dull.  In fact, the novel is compelling as well as poignant and hopeful.  While the ending is predictable, I still very much enjoyed this insightful middle grade novel.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert)

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Meredith Cooper and Nina Whitson have never understood their cold, emotionless mother.  They know little about her, always having preferred the company of their warm, loving father.  On his deathbed, he pleads with his grown daughters to make a last effort to break through their mother's defenses and really get to know her.  Mired in grief, Anya Whitson is as impenetrable as ever.  Instead of reaching out to her children for comfort, she spins them a familiar Russian fairy tale that has nothing at all to do with Anya's past ... or does it?  As her story sweeps from grim, war-torn Leningrad to modern-day Alaska, unfolding shocking secrets, Meredith and Nina finally get a glimpse of what their mother has suffered and what it has meant for all of their lives.  Will that understanding finally enable them to forge some kind of a relationship with one another?  Or has too much damage been done to ever find reconciliation?

Because of rich, epic novels like The Nightingale and The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah has become an author I watch closely.  Her backlist books haven't impressed me as much as her newer offerings, but I've still enjoyed several of them.  Published a decade ago, Winter Garden offers the kind of intriguing, family-secrets premise that always grabs my attention.  Its execution is a little rough, though.  The characters are difficult to like, especially Anya, whose aloofness toward her children seems extreme even in light of the tragedy she experienced prior to their births.  Her daughters are both self-centered people, although they do experience clarity and growth throughout the story.  In addition, the novel moves at a glacial pace, without the suspense I expected to be woven through the narrative.  The pacing picks up toward the end as Anya's secrets are revealed, but it does become a bit of a slog before that.  I'm not much for fairy tales, so that element of the novel really didn't work for me.  Still and all, I found Winter Garden compelling.  It's devastating, heartbreaking, and touching.  While it's far from my favorite Hannah novel, I did enjoy it for the most part.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  You?)

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