3 Review(s)

Exploring some of the world's eeriest places, Abandoned Islands features American civil war forts, Europe's last leper colony and South Atlantic whaling stations, along with once grand mansions and colonial settlements and churches, and much more. Arranged geographically, the book takes us from New York's East River to islands off Alaska, from a French Napoleonic-era fort off the coast of Normandy to deserted villages on remote Scottish isles, from Venetian sanatoria to Croatian penal colonies, Japanese mining colonies to Sudanese deserted ports and abandoned atolls in the Indian Ocean. Leafing through these pages, the reasons for abandonment are revealed: climate change sealing off fresh water or river channels, shifting economic forces making life too hard, religious conflict, or wars disrupting daily life - or the absence of war rendering a military settlement unnecessary. With more than 180 outstanding colour photographs and fascinating captions, Abandoned Islands is a brilliant pictorial exploration of lost worlds.