Book

The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores

2019

Synopsis

Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her—and her career is stalled—when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azorean Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas to ease their saudade, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can’t be fully translated.

Years later, California is in a terrible drought, the wildfires seem to never end, and Diana finds herself still dreaming of those islands and the chuva—a rain so soft you don’t notice when it begins or ends.

With her troublesome Labrador retriever, Murphy, in tow, Diana returns to the islands of her dreams only to discover that there are still things she longs for—and one of them may be a most unexpected love.

Suggested Reading

Home Is an Island: A Novel

Home Is an Island, a novel by Alfred Lewis published in 1951 by Random House, is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set on the remote island of Flores in the Azores during the early twentieth century. The narrative follows a young Portuguese boy as he navigates the simplicity and challenges...

In Pursuit of Their Dreams: A History of Azorean Immigration to the United States

Jerry Williams' history of Azorean immigration to the United States offers us valuable insight into the experience and culture of Portuguese immigrants and their descendents. This account fills a major gap in American immigration history and gives us a comprehensive overview of how Portuguese-Americ...

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