Floreana

This was an interesting one - I had clearly not read the blurb before starting as I was getting major deja vu, thinking that I was sure I hadn't read this before, but aspects of it were familiar. Turns out I read a book called [b:The Galapagos Affair 12402623 The Galapagos Affair John Treherne https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328818208l/12402623.SY75.jpg 4461199], which was written way after the fact, but used this book and another from another island inhabitant as source material. I didn't enjoy that book much (2 stars), but I didn't review it at the time.I have somewhat jumped ahead though. Some vague spoilers below, but I have stayed away from the good stuff!In August 1932 the author and her husband, along with this son (her stepson) landed on Floreana, an island in the Galapagos Island group. They were a German couple who longed for a simpler life, and managed to arrange their staying there with the Ecuadorean government. There were another two people on the island, also German. He was an eccentric nudist vegetarian doctor, named Friedrich Ritter and a supposed disciple Dore Strauch, who were there without their respective spouses and have a complex and frictional relationship! They were, can you believe, not the most strange occupants as the self-styled Austrian Baroness Wagner de Bosquet turned up not long after, with three (German) men in tow and began requisitioning things and taking goods and gifts left for the Wittmer's!I don't think I can explain the plot of the above more than to say people die in circumstances that vary depending on who tells the story, others disappear without trace. The book mentioned above tries to untangle the web, but this book tells only the Wittmer's version of things.But more than these bizarre interactions, this is the story of this intrepid family starting (literally) from scratch, clearing scrub to plant vegetables and living in a cave while building a house from timbers cut from the available trees, and just finding a way to survive. They couple are genuinely very hard working, share all their trials and tribulations not being selective about sharing the things they did wrong or failed at, but equally celebrated their successes.Written from her diaries and not published until 1959 (in German, translated and published in English in 1961), it covers a huge timespan, as they couples son (the eldest of their two children born on the island) is married at the end of the book in the late 1950s.Famous visitors include the US President at the time Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thor Heyerdahl. Over the years the couple made strong connections with Americans from Multi-millionaire yacht owners to the military who used the Galapagos as naval and surveillance bases in the pre-war years, but thankfully they were recognised as not supporting the Nazi regime and were very well supported through the war years.There was loads going on that I haven't mentioned, and this was a really engaging read. The translation was obviously done well, as the flow of the narrative was maintained throughout.The one thing not addressed in this book is the damage done by settlers life on this island - but more than them by the cattle, pigs and dogs introduced (before these settlers) on one of the most remarkable island groups in the world.I thought this really interesting for a wide range of reasons!4 stars