Floreana - by Midge Raymond (Paperback)

About the Book

After ten years away to build a family, Mallory returns to Floreana Island in the Galapagos, and to Gavin, the mentor with whom she had a long-ago affair. Their project is to build nests to revive the vulnerable penguin population. But Mallory doesn t dare tell Gavin why she s really come back. Then she discovers old journals hidden in a lava cave confessions of another woman who needed to disappear.

Book Synopsis

On the Galápagos Islands, the lives of two women--a century apart--converge in the most startling ways in a historical novel of desperate love, secrets, and deception by the author of My Last Continent.

After ten years away to build a family, Mallory returns to Floreana Island in the Galápagos, and to Gavin, the mentor with whom she had a long-ago affair. Their project is to build nests to revive the vulnerable penguin population. But Mallory doesn't dare tell Gavin why she's really come back. Then she discovers old journals hidden in a lava cave--confessions of another woman who needed to disappear.

In 1929, Dore Strauch left the life she knew to create a new one with the man she loved. On remote Floreana they're beholden to no one but each other. Until the arrival of strangers, settlers in their paradise. Suddenly, Dore realizes that it's no longer the refuge she imagined. And that amid the island's fragile beauty, people can do the most terrible things.

A gripping reimagining of a true story, Floreana intertwines the emotional journeys of two women bound by dark secrets, the want of escape, and the lengths to which they'll go to find their place in the world.

Review Quotes

"Lose yourself in rich, evocative new historical fiction...Floreana invents a dramatic explanation for the still-unsolved deaths that occurred on this small island in the Galápagos in the 1930s...The mounting tension that engulfs the island is mirrored by that of the present-day research camp, where past liaisons and current secrets keep everyone on edge...What remains most convincing is Raymond's vivid depiction of the island's flora and fauna...[A] standout." --Alida Becker, The New York Times

"An engrossing narrative of self-reckoning." --Publishers Weekly

"The truth behind this real-life event remains a mystery, but Raymond imagines an exciting version of events that is gripping and intriguing, while creating a vivid scene of the wild, remote island in the 1930s...highly recommended." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Based on the true events of the Floreana murders, this reimagining is immersive and supremely well done. The setting is spot on...Highly recommended." --Historical Novels Review

"Raymond's novel is riveting and revelatory, a murder mystery embedded in other mysteries--of love and regret, loss and redemption, and how we can manage to hold on to the parts of this beautiful world that were never ours in the first place." --Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

"Floreana is a beautiful, unexpected, and powerful novel about the fragility of life and love in its many forms...A powerful and totally unique book." --Samantha Greene Woodruff, bestselling author of The Lobotomist's Wife and The Trade Off

"Floreana masterfully weaves together the tales of two women who escape to the same faraway island almost a century apart. Raymond's beautiful and absorbing novel kept me turning the pages." --Karin Lin-Greenberg, author of You Are Here

"This book is a triple hitter: it's a great novel, beautifully structured and woven; it's a compelling mystery; and it's a striking lesson about ecology and the importance of keeping our world intact. All three join together in one powerful tornado of a book." --Laurie Notaro, New York Times bestselling author of The Murderess and Crossing the Horizon

"Who knows what happened on Floreana Island in the Galápagos in the 1930s? In this suspenseful and immersive novel, Midge Raymond offers a possible series of events leading up to infamous fates of a few of the settlers, as well as telling an equally compelling contemporary story. Come for the disastrous love affairs, stay for the careful depiction of efforts being made toward penguin conservation. Much like the fantasy of desert island life, Floreana offers a rich bounty of attractions." --Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming

"Floreana is a stunning and deeply layered murder mystery, historical novel, and environmental love letter all in one. Midge Raymond beautifully and seamlessly weaves the hidden lives of two women, a century apart, as they negotiate the fragile terrain of the Galápagos Islands along with their own troubled psyches...A haunting tale for our times." --JoeAnn Hart, author of Arroyo Circle and Highwire Act