The Island at the End of Everything

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave Narrated by Eunice Wong

Overview

A poignant story filled with heart-warming courage as a young girl takes on a harrowing journey to be reunited with her mother

Ami lives on Culion, an island in the Philippines for people who have leprosy. Her mother is among the infected. Ami loves her home: with its blue seas and lush forests, Culion contains all she knows and loves. But the arrival of malicious government official Mr. Zamora changes her world forever. Islanders untouched by sickness are forced to leave for a neighboring island, where the children are placed in an orphanage. Banished across the sea, Ami is desperate to return to Culion before her mother's death. She finds a strange and fragile hope in a colony of butterflies. Can they lead her home before it's too late? Heartrending yet hopeful, celebrated newcomer Kiran Hargrave's novel is a story about loss, perseverance, and faith.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A heartbreaking and heartwarming must-read about love, loss, friendship, and determination in times of desperation."—Kirkus, starred review

"Hargrave tells an incredible story of compassion, love, and daring in this book’s pages, and her lyrical writing glides with the grace of a butterfly. "—Booklist, starred review

"Hargrave gives dignity to the colony’s legacy, showcasing the beauty of the island and the strength and love of the residents. "—VOYA, starred review

author of The Zebra’s Great Escape Katherine Rundell

So full of light…Brilliant.”

DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Eunice Wong’s melodic narration weaves a tapestry of images from this historical tale. Ami has always lived on Culion, an island to which people touched by leprosy, like her mother, are banished. When Mr. Zamora, a malicious government official, removes all untouched children from their parents and sends them to a different island, Ami fights to find her way home again. Wong balances the tender aspects of Ami, who adores her mother and longs for her community, against the growing anger she harbors towards those who stand in her way. Mr. Zamora’s voice has a perfect tone of officiousness that demonstrates his lack of interest in anyone’s opinion but his own. Wong does justice to the author’s descriptions of the lush landscape of the Philippines. N.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2018-01-22
Life on an island for those with Hansen's disease is all Amihan has ever known. Now she must face the outside world, ostracized for living among the lepers.In 1906, Amihan's mother was taken from her home to live on Culion, an island leper colony in the Philippines. Isolated from the rest of the world, Amihan loves life on Culion, and caring for her mother and watching for butterflies is all she wants to do. Then an unexpected visitor from the department of health arrives and declares that healthy children will be taken to live in an orphanage on a nearby island, away from the disease but also separated from their families. There Amihan meets Mariposa, a girl named for the butterflies, and they become fast friends. When alarming news reaches her, Amihan is in dire need to see her mother, and together the girls journey to find their way back to Culion. Narrated in the present tense from Amihan's point of view, the writing, laced with Tagalog, is simple, but the themes and topics are heavy, such as being seen as less than human. For her second novel, Hargrave (The Cartographer's Daughter, 2016) researched the history of the real island of Culion, and in it she captures the raw feelings of stigma, exile, and loss that came with Hansen's disease at that time.A heartbreaking and heartwarming must-read about love, loss, friendship, and determination in times of desperation. (glossary, author's note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175172998
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

There are some places you would not want to go.
Even if I told you that we have oceans clear and blue as summer skies, filled with sea turtles and dolphins, or forest-covered hills lush with birds that call through air thick with warmth. Even if you knew how beautiful the quiet is here, clean and fresh as a glass bell ringing. But nobody comes here because they want to.
My nanay told me this is how they brought her, but says it is always the same, no matter who you are or where you come from.
From your house you travel on horse or by foot, then on a boat. The men who row it cover their noses and mouths with cloths stuffed with herbs so they don’t have to share your breath. They will not help you onto the boat although your head aches and two weeks ago your legs began to hurt, then to numb. Maybe you stumble toward them, and they duck. They’d rather you rolled over their backs and into the sea than touch you. You sit and clutch your bundle of things from home, what you saved before it was burned. Clothes, a doll, some books, letters from your mother.
Somehow, it is always dusk when you approach.
The island changes from a dark dot to a green heaven on the horizon. High on a cross-topped cliff that slopes toward the sea is a field of white flowers, looping strangely. It is not until you are closer that you see it forms the shape of an eagle, and it is not until you are very close that you see it is made of stones. This is when your heart hardens in your chest, like petals turning to pebbles. Nanay says the white eagle’s meaning is known across all the surrounding islands, even all the places outside our sea. It means: Stay away. Do not come here unless you have no choice.
The day is dropping to dark as you come into the harbor. When you step from the boat, the stars are setting out their little lights. Someone will be there to welcome you. They understand.
The men who brought you leave straightaway, though they are tired. They have not spoken to you in the days or hours you spent with them. The splash of oars fades to the sound of waves lapping the beach. They will burn the boat when they get back, as they did your house.
You look at the person who greeted you. You are changed now. Like flowers into stones, day into night. You will always be heavier, darkened, marked. Touched. 
Nanay says that in the Places Outside, they have many names for our home. The Island of the Living Dead. The Island of No Return. The Island at the End of Everything.
You are on Culion, where the oceans are blue and clear as summer skies. Culion, where sea turtles dig the beaches and the trees brim with fruit.
Culion, island of lepers. Welcome home.

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