Happiness Is a Lost Island

The author grew up in Mahe, the largest island of the Seychelles archipelago, separated from Africa, the nearest continent, by a thousand miles of ocean. Life in this small British colony was as close as one could come on Earth to life on a separate planet. The outside world did little to engage the minds of a population that was largely self-sufficient, that found enough of interest in its own communal life, and that normally spoke French or the local Creole patois. The rhythm of daily life still followed the pattern established in the eighteenth century by the French settlers who colonised the islands. The isolation of this little world was ended with the opening of the international airport in 1974, followed shortly by independence, tourists, and many changes.The Seychelles of Lise's youth has gone. Even without its gripping story of love and loss, passion and tragedy, this novel would stand as a unique record of that vanished place and time.