A gentle, sentimental tale recounting the past adventures of 2 young women on an Italian island and how key events then have affected their lives since. The story is taken forward when the grown up daugher of one of the women goes back to Ischia and discovers new facts about those past events and the truth of her own identity. I thought the timeshifts flowed nicely between past and present. But it's really a relationships novel with an adventure element which is really quite tame. The main characters are easy to sympathise with and I was quickly hooked into the storyline. For me, Helen is the most authentic and rounded of the main characters. I found certain explanations expressed by Lyddia and Allie were not that convincing, and some of their motives and actions somewhat flimsy or unlikely. There is something a little old fashioned about the plot, the shocks not really that shocking by todays standards. For me though, this is probably a plus mark as I'm a refusenik against the ultra violent dross and escapist all action plotless crap that is so prevalent in contemporary literature and films today. The story has enough variety - and subtlety - to avoid being too predictable and much of the interest is just in the specific ordinariness of the characters and storyline. I found it an enjoyable easy read with a fluent style that kept my interest throughout, though the ending rather fizzled out, there is no great dramatic finale here. overall, I think this is a book that would appeal more to women than male readers. That said, I enjoyed it and would certainly read another novel by Penny Feeny. I would recommend this as a very good holiday read - lightweight, sunny outlook, mainly happy ending. It would go down smoothly with a G&T under your canopy by the hotel pool, especially in italy!! Never really fulfils its potential. I simply found the characters rather 2 dimensional , the atmosphere underwritten and lacking in any feel for the sense of place.The plots quite good but nothings explored properly and to make matters worse the author simply allows the novel to fizzle out to a total anti climax.To summarise it starts out as a page turner though you quickly realise that its going nowhere.
What do You think about Die Zomer In Ischia (2011)?
I read this book in one day- a real page turner that has you wondering what happens next.
—cupcakelover
The story was fluent and read easily, but I did not engage with any of the characters.
—mondaymorning
Unsatisfying... struggled to maintain enough interest to finish it.
—Dilove
