The Violins of Saint-Jacques: A Tale of the Antilles (ISBN 0719555299)

Perfect "Book Vacation":
Patrick Leigh Fermor is better known for his Travel Non-Fiction works, all of which are wonderful, but this book is one of the few I know that I would describe as perfect. It is the kind of fiction that magically transports you to another place and time. The delicacy and evocative power of Fermor's narrative voice is perfect for a story that occupies (like Dunsany's Elfland)the gray and luminous region between the world we know and folk tale... Rarely are flashback stories emotionally satisfying, but this device makes the loss of St Jacques all the more poignant. The character of the Governess is one of my favorite "book-people". If you can find a copy of this little book, snap it up!

Small and perfectly formed:
This gorgeous book, so dense in description and evocation of another land in another time, is nearly perfect. It describes the richness and mystical turbulence of creole life in bygone colonial days under French rule. Years later, a narrator listens to the tales of a woman who, while young, spent six explosive years on the island of Saint-Jacques. She is wistful and intense and full of memory for detail. Gorgeous

Inaccuracy of The Violins of Saint-Jacques:
I am taking a volcanology class in my university and I had to develop a research paper determining the accuracy of this novel to the eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902 (the eruption which the book portrays). Though the story may be interesting to a certain degree, the accuracy in relation to historical events is way off. I also found the book to be a little drawn out at certain parts, but overall an quick and capturing read.