Book Club Monday: Isola

Author: Allegra Goodman Title: Isola Publisher: The Dial Press Date Published: 02/04/2025

Read Dates: 08/05/2026- 08/09/2026
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

This was my library book club pick for August.

Isola is a single POV historical fiction based on the life of Marguerite de la Rocque. Born into wealth but orphaned young, she is left to the whims of a guardian who squanders her fortune and keeps her shut away to avoid paying her dowry. Once in adulthood, he brings her on a dangerous sea voyage to New France (Canada). On the voyage, she falls in love with his servant, and her guardian, enraged, maroons them (along with her childhood nurse) on a barren island to survive as long as they can.

This was really well written but definitely not a "fun" story. There are conflicting hisorical accounts of Marguerite de la Rocque time on the island and return to France, and the author does a good job of portraying both accounts, presenting it as a sort of "he said/she said" accounting of the tale. In either account, her survival on an isolated island for at least two years was impressive. I did find myself wishing the author could have taken some creative liberties with the story, just because I wanted a happier ending for her than she got, but it seems like it was well researched and as faithful to the history as could be given the limited, conflicting reports. 

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.