Islands

A Novel

By: Anne Rivers Siddons

Narrated by: Dana Ivey

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Anny Butler is a caretaker, a nurturer, first for her own brothers and sisters, and then as a director of an agency devoted to the welfare of children. What she has never had is a real family. That changes when she meets and marries Lewis Aiken, an exuberant surgeon 15 years older than Anny. When they marry, she finds her family: not a traditional one, but a group of Charleston childhood friends who are inseparable, who are one another's surrogate family. They are called the Scrubs, and they all, in some way, have the common cord of family.

Instantly upon meeting them at the old beach house on Sullivan's Island, which they co-own, Anny knows that she has found home and family. They vow that, when the time comes, they will find a place where they can live together by the sea.

Bad things begin to happen, a hurricane, a fire, deaths, but still the remaining Scrubs cling together. They are watched over and bolstered by Camilla Curry, the heart and core of their group, always the healer. Anny herself allows Camilla to enfold and to care for her. It is the first time she has felt this kind of love and support.

©2004 Anne Rivers Siddons (P)2005 HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"She cannot be surpassed in evoking a kind of life peculiar to the South, with its emphasis on grace, good manners and stoic endurance. Her fans will find Siddons's narrative charisma intact and blooming." (Publishers Weekly)

Insipid

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Nothing. The story is so boringly awful. A bunch of spoiled, rich people and their lives make for a boring story. There was no dramatic tension to this story until the next to the last chapter and even classifying it as dramatic tension is a stretch.

Would you ever listen to anything by Anne Rivers Siddons again?

Probably not.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dana Ivey?

No suggestions.

Any additional comments?

I cannot recommend this book under any circumstances.

So Comfortable

The reader makes the characters and Charleston, SC come to life. Her descriptions makes you totally immersed in the low country, marsh, river and the”Battery”. Well worth delving into.

Friends, Love, Wealth and Betrayal

I can’t stop thinking about this book. It is gracious and well written with a thread of nostalgia through it. Loved the plot twists and turns. It would make a fabulous TV Movie!

WONDERFUL

WONDERFUL writer, wonderful story, wonderful words, wonderful narrator! i had forgotten how much I adore Anne Rivers Siddons. Read all her books when they first came out; all these years later (at 73), I'm enjoying them alll all again . :)

Great Voice!

Dana Ivey was fabulous! I would love to hear more books read that she reads.