The title of this novel refers to the Island of Spinalonga where lepers were sent and were not allowed to leave. The island of Spinalonga is located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi, next to the town of Plaka. The island was subsequently used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. It is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. There were two entrances to Spinalonga, one being the lepers’ entrance, a tunnel known as “Dante’s Gate”. This was so named because the patients did not know what was going to happen to them once they arrived. However, once on the island they received food, water, medical attention and social security payments.
The church on Spinalonga is St Pantaleimon.
Plaka is where Maria and her family live. The village of Plaka is located in the stunning setting of the Mirabello bay, right opposite the island of Kalidon (Spinalonga). It used to be a tiny fishing village and only a few years ago was frequented only by a few individualistic travellers. This has changed and a number of hotels and tavernas have sprung up but it is still a really nice and quiet place and will hopefully remain so for a few more years.
Elounda is nearby town that the characters make reference to. Actually, Eleni worked as a teacher there. Elounda is a small town on the northern coast of the island of Crete, Greece.
Leprosy is one of the main themes in the novel. Leprosy,is a long-term infection by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Symptoms that develop include granulomas of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, thus loss of parts of extremities due to repeated injuries or infection due to unnoticed wounds. Weakness and poor eyesight may also be present. Leprosy is spread between people. This is thought to occur through a cough or contact with fluid from the nose of an infected person. Leprosy occurs more commonly among those living in poverty. Contrary to popular belief, it is not highly contagious.
During the novel we witness the invasion of the Nazis. The Battle of Crete was fought during the Second World War on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany began an airborne invasion of Crete. Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy; the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance.
During the Nazi occupation, Antonis joins the Cretan Resistance. The Cretan resistance was a resistance movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Italy by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from 20 May 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the spring of 1945 when they surrendered to the British. For the first time during World War II, attacking German forces faced in Crete a substantial resistance from the local population. Cretan civilians picked off paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes or even bare hands. As a result, many casualties were inflicted upon the invading German paratroopers during the battle.
The novel mentions the abduction of General Kreipe. The kidnap of Major General Heinrich Kreipe was a Second World War operation by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), an organisation of the United Kingdom. The mission took place on the German occupied island of Crete in May 1944. On 1 March 1944, Kreipe was appointed Commander of the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division operating on Crete, who had been made the German commander in the Dodecanese and who had a reputation for brutality towards the Cretan people. The SOE team of Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain William Stanley Moss had planned to abduct Müller, but when he was replaced, proceeded with their plans and targeted Kreipe instead. Helped by Cretan resistance fighters, the SOE team successfully abducted Kreipe and managed to evade the German troops searching for them. When the team reached the coast, they were picked up by the Royal Navy and taken to Egypt.
After this, several villages on Crete were burnt down. The Viannos massacres were a mass extermination campaign launched by Nazi forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages on the Greek island of Crete during World War II. The killings, with a death toll in excess of 500, were carried out on 14–16 September 1943 by Wehrmacht units. They were accompanied by the burning of most villages, and the looting and destruction of harvests. It was ordered by Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, in retaliation for the support and involvement of the local population in the Cretan resistance which assisted a squad of secret amphibious raiders sanctioned by Churchill, leader of the British war effort.
German forces began withdrawing from the Greek mainland in late 1944 as Soviet forces advancing into South-Eastern Europe from the Ukraine threatened to cut them off. British forces then landed in October 1944, liberating Athens by 14 October 1944.
After the war, Maria is diagnosed with leprosy. She goes to Ikralion to visit Dr Kyritsis. Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. It is the fourth largest city in Greece.
Nikolaos Kyritsis treats the patients with dapsone, which finally cures them. Dapsone was first studied as an antibiotic in 1937. Its use for leprosy began in 1945. It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.
At the end of the book Maria and Nikolaos marry, and they move to Agios Nikolaos, where he gets a job in the local hospital. Agios Nikolaos or Aghios Nikolaos is a coastal town on the Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island’s capital Heraklion.
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