ABANDONED ISLANDS (2022) - Review

Abandoned Islands by Claudia Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
On sale: April 14, 2022

There are abandoned islands in all parts of the world. Claudia Martin's coffee table book includes four sections: North and South America, Europe, The Middle East, and Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Some islands may be familiar like Alcatraz but most are long forgotten.

Many of these abandoned islands housed prisons, leper colonies, immigration, inspection stations, and quarantine hospitals. Others became abandoned when the small number of inhabitants and the resources to support them seemed less attractive than life on the mainlands.

Each island has a brief description which includes what they were used for and the dates when they were abandoned. A variety of beautiful photographs (160), although some seem of a uneven quality, imply the hardships of isolated living.

A sampling of what caught my eye starts with North Brother Island in New York's East River. From 1885 to 1945 it was the site of Riverside Hospital for people who were quarantined. 'Typhoid Mary', whose real name was Mary Mallon, was forced to live there for 23 years.

Bunce Island, Sierra Leone, was a base for European slave traders. England's Royal Africa Company even built a castle there around 1670.

Volcanic Crocodile Island in Kenya is in the center of a lake. And, yes, there are Crocodiles.

Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands was forced to relocate 167 islanders to the United States so 23 nuclear devices could be detonated there between 1946 and 1958.

"Abandoned Islands" is certainly an inspiration for those who want to travel to lesser known places or maybe just research them on the Internet. Not only a coffee table book, this handsome volume would make a lovely gift.

Thank you to NetGalley / Amber Books Ltd, and the author for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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