annieb123's Review of Abandoned Islands (Abandoned)

by Claudia Martin

Exploring some of the world’s eeriest places, Abandoned Islands features American civil war forts, Europe’s last leper colony and South Atlantic whaling stations, along with once grand mansions and colonial settlements and churches, and much more.
Arranged geographically, the book takes us from New York’s East River to islands off Alaska, from a French Napoleonic-era fort off the coast of Normandy to deserted villages on remote Scottish isles, from Venetian sanatoria to Croatian penal colonies, Japanese mining colonies to Sudanese deserted ports and abandoned atolls in the Indian Ocean. Leafing through these pages, the reasons for abandonment are revealed: climate change sealing off fresh water or river channels, shifting economic forces making life too hard, religious conflict, or wars disrupting daily life – or the absence of war rendering a military settlement unnecessary.
With more than 180 outstanding colour photographs and fascinating captions, Abandoned Islands is a brilliant pictorial exploration of lost worlds.

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Abandoned Islands is a photographic tour of some iconic abandoned and uninhabited islands, written and curated by travel author Claudia Martin. Due out 10th May 2022 from Amber Books, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

This book was a wonderful surprise for me. I was expecting photographs of wild and overgrown places but there was so much more. The book is filled with beautiful photography and lovely background descriptions. They are all island locations both large and small. Each of the entries contains one or more colour photos as well as interesting tidbits of background history. There were only a few with which I was previously familiar, Pollepel Island for example, which was for sale to the public not too long ago.

There is such a richness to this book. The islands which are included are arranged in the book grouped geographically: North & South America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia & the Pacific. The photography is rich and varied. The scenery is beautiful. I can certainly see this book becoming a display/coffee table book for the photography, but the is also captivating.

Lovely. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, for fans of travel writing, and for readers who enjoy beautiful books for display.

Four stars (and it fills me with wanderlust to go visit some of these places).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Abandoned Islands (Abandoned)

by Claudia Martin

Reviewed by annieb123 on Apr 10, 2022

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