the island of lepers

This novel deals with a subject that I mistakenly thought to belong to a moyenageux past leprosy in Europe. Through the story of a Cretan family affected doubling (at two different times) by this terrible disease, you learn a lot about the lives of people on the island where they lived, and the history of the fight against leprosy . Having visited Crete, this book especially moved me.
The characters are a bit stereotypical (a sweet girl, helpful, dedicated, the other proud and self-centered), but the story remains compelling, because it is a news not so long ago.
As usual with Victoria Hislop: "present" setting: a young woman who discovers her roots very late because her mother has long hidden his painful past. This framework is never what she writes better (one wonders if she really needs this "current pretext," history would fine without it), but fortunately it is not very long.