Isle of Passion

by Laura Restrepo

Perril asked all the castaways to come aboard, welcomed them warmly, gave them boxes of chocolates as gifts, and ordered the preparation of the watchkeeper’s quarters, which had sanitary facilities. He personally supervised a menu, palatable enough but appropriate for their digestive systems, which were unaccustomed to oils and spices. About two hours later, the Clipperton survivors were taken to the dining room, where the children became the center of attention for the sailors, who joked with them and made faces. This resulted in their crying and running for cover behind their mothers. They were served chicken breasts Maryland, mashed potatoes, salad greens, milk, and apples.

  After dinner, Captain Perril took Alicia to his cabin for the customary official questioning, with the help of Dr. Ross, who spoke some Spanish.

  “Could I serve you something to drink, a liqueur perhaps?” he asked to break the ice. She said no thanks.

  “I would like to know what day is today,” Alicia asked.

  She was told it was Wednesday, 18 July 1917.

  “How strange,” she commented, “we thought it was Monday, 16 July 1916. We were off by only two days, but we obliterated a whole year. I do not know how this could happen.”

  “Don’t give it another thought,” Perril answered. “If according to you we are in 1916, we shall make it 1916. I like that number.”

  She was asked for names, dates, events, and motivations. They found out all the hows and whys. She answered as accurately as she could, in the English she had learned under the nuns’ guidance in her adolescence, and which up to that moment she had only used to write love letters to Ramón. Perril wrote everything down, and when they finished, he asked if she would like to accompany him for some fresh air on deck, to take advantage of such a pleasant evening. Dr. Ross decided to retire, concluding that they no longer needed his services as translator in order to understand each other.

  Looking at the ocean and enjoying the evening breeze, Captain Perril wished to express to Mrs. Arnaud the profound sympathy he felt for their misfortune and his admiration for the courageous way in which they had preserved the lives of adults and children. He put phrases together in his head, he had them at the tip of his tongue, but he could not articulate any of them. He was surprised to find himself insecure and bashful in the presence of this woman dressed in such an old-fashioned way and who, in spite of everything, still impressed him as beautiful.

  “Don’t you have a special desire, or wish for anything in particular?” Perril managed to say. “I would like very much to be able to please you, after the many years of deprivation that you had to suffer.”

  She thought about it for a moment, and told him there was something, that she would like to have some orange juice. The captain ordered a tall glass for her, and while drinking it, Alicia commented that if they had not lacked this on the isle, many lives would have been saved. From there, she told him about the scurvy episode. Then he told her about the world war, and she spoke about Victoriano; he informed her about the Russian Revolution, and she explained how they used to catch boobies. So he told her about the death of Emperor Francis Joseph I, and time went fast without their realizing it. They had engaged in a conversation that lasted until one o’clock in the morning and which they ended just because it grew too cold on deck. Before going in, the captain confessed his worries of that morning about approaching the atoll.

  “Those underwater reefs,” he commented, “make navigation in that area a very delicate matter. I am happy we are already far away from that place.”

  “However, I have already begun to feel nostalgia for it,” she said, smiling.

  While he accompanied her to the cabin where the other women and the children had already retired earlier, Perril had one more question.

  “Please tell me, Mrs. Arnaud, were those nine years a real torment for you?”

  She gave it careful thought, weighed the good and the bad, and answered him with honesty.

  “They were bearable, Captain. Thanks.”

  After wishing her happy dreams on the first night of her new life, Perril went to the radio room. Together with the radio operator until three in the morning, he tried to send a radiogram to the British consul in Acapulco, who was also in charge of U.S. affairs, with the notification of the ship’s expected arrival at Salina Cruz in four days’ time, and of the survivors he had rescued from Clipperton Island. This accomplished, he retired to his cabin, but since he was not able to sleep, he made some informal notes in his diary.

  Captain Arnaud’s widow is the only white survivor in the group. She is only twenty-nine years old, and, even though she seems older, she still is a beautiful woman, and very intelligent, as her conversation proves. She must be. Otherwise, she would not have been able to help the group through the extreme hardships they were subjected to. Her clothes are very old fashioned but of excellent quality, and she wears some splendid diamonds that speak of more fortunate times. She showed me the money she has accumulated and protected, which she intends to put to good use upon her return. I did not dare confess that even though that money could have represented a fortune in the times of General Huerta, now it is worth almost nothing. Except for her and her children, all of the others are Mexican Indians, but at first I thought they were black, they are so suntanned. Dr. Ross examined them and informed me that he found all in reasonably good health. He told me also that he had talked with the women and learned that when our boat returned to the ship after the failed first landing attempt, they felt so desperate that they thought of killing the children and then committing suicide by drowning in the ocean. The one who seems to have the strongest resolve and a most energetic personality is Tirsa Rendón, widow of the lieutenant at that post. As soon as she came on board, she asked if we would lend her a sewing machine from the quartermaster and without any time to waste, she started to make garments out of some drill material for the children.

  The children are very timid, but very curious. Everything seems strange to them, and they want to see and touch everything. They cried when the bluejackets carried them to the gunboat because they thought they would be separated from their mothers, who were still on the boat. The men paid much attention to these children and gave them boxes of candy, although the children had no idea what it was. I spent some time watching a young Indian girl trying to open a box of marshmallows. When she succeeded, she walked to the guardrail, threw the marshmallows in the water one by one, then closed the box and took it with her, satisfied with her new toy. She placed it on the deck, and let it slide back and forth with the movement of the ship. At dinner-time, the younger ones did not want to eat even a bite of anything they were served because, I heard them say, they wanted to eat booby, which is the kind of seagull they used to eat on the isle. The women, on the other hand, said that they hoped not to have to eat more seagulls as long as they lived.

  They brought on board two desolate pigs, the scrawniest I have ever seen in my life. The men say they look like the original pair just out of Noah’s ark, and even though they were offered to the cook, no one wants to kill them. It would be cruel for them to lose their lives right after being rescued, after such a hard struggle to survive.

  At four in the morning Captain Perril closed his notebook and fell asleep. Two hours later, the radio operator woke him up with the British consul’s reply. He said he would go personally to welcome the survivors and had already notified some of the relatives who had maintained contact with him as part of their rescue efforts.

  On Sunday, 21 July, at 1700, the gunboat Yorktown dropped anchor in the Mexican port of Salina Cruz. Three men stood waiting at the dock: the British consul; Alicia’s father, Don Félix Rovira; and the German fellow, Gustav Schultz. Captain Perril ordered the admittance of Don Félix to the cabin where his daughter awaited him. That night he wrote in his diary that he saw them embrace with such emotion that, for the first time in many years, he could not hold back his tears. That they sat together, in silence, looking into each other’s eyes, very moved, and holding hands tightly. Pe
rril also wrote that he left them alone in the cabin, and when he returned, half an hour later, they were still in the same position he had left them, unable to utter a word.

  Epilogue

  CLIPPERTON CEASED BEING under Mexican authority in 1931 due to a decision favorable to France by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Aside from crabs, boobies, and a French flag, which flies like a faded bedsheet hung out to dry in the sun, the only things standing on the isle are the thirteen coconut palm trees planted by Gustav Schultz.

  Acknowledgments

  IN ORIZABA:

  Alicia Arnaud (Mrs. Loyo)

  IN COLIMA:

  Carlos Ceballos

  Genaro Hernández

  IN MEXICO CITY:

  Colonel N.N.

  Rodrigo Moya

  Carlos Payán

  Paco Ignacio Taibo II

  Roberto Bardini

  IN BOGOTÁ:

  Carmen Restrepo

  Helena de Restrepo

  Guillermo Angulo

  Mireya Fonseca

  Alvaro Tafur

  Ramiro Castro

  Gonzalo Mallarino

  To Alex Knight, wherever he is.

  To Chiqui, wherever he hides.

  To the Teacher, in the desert.

  To Eduardo Camacho, forever.

  To Fernando Restrepo, from afar.

  To Dolores M. Koch, for her impeccable translation.

  About the Author

  Nina Subin

  LAURA RESTREPO is the bestselling author of six novels, including The Dark Bride, A Tale of the Dispossessed, and Delirio, which received Spain’s prestigious Alfaguara Prize in 2004. She lives in Colombia.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

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  Praise for Laura Restrepo and

  Isle of Passion

  “Laura Restrepo brings to life a singular amalgam of journalistic investigation and literary creation. . . . Irrefutably enjoyable reading.”

  —Gabriel García Márquez

  “Restrepo charts a wide and intense range of human experience in this compelling story of castaways.”

  —Washington Post

  “The Colombian author’s previously untranslated 1999 debut novel is arguably her best: a ripping yarn that re-creates an obscure historical incident. . . . Restrepo energizes [the narrative] with persuasive characterizations of conflicted, intermittently megalomaniacal Ramón, his courageous wife, Alicia—who ultimately becomes the islanders’ savior—and two splendidly imagined antagonists. . . . Vivid and entertaining.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “[Restrepo] pulls the various elements together with a clear, no-nonsense cartographer’s precision, and the result is smooth sailing indeed.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “This extraordinarily gripping novel communicates surprising lessons on the human condition. Highly recommended.”

  —Library Journal (starred review)

  “Restrepo’s skill as both a journalist and fiction writer gives [Isle of Passion] a feel of realism that very few writers could achieve. . . . [Weaving]her own research . . . with fictionalized accounts . . . her story provides a much-deserved empathy for the survivors while involving the reader in the process that produced her work. Her honesty about the obvious holes—unavoidable with the passage of time and retelling—allow the reader to choose which version to believe, and accept Restrepo’s account for the fiction that it is.”

  —Hispanic

  “Laura Restrepo has conjured up the isolated but legendary Clipperton Island and converted it into a coveted destination: they travel there, one after another, the many readers of her novel, buoyed up by her imagination, seduced by the tale of heroism, dignity, tragedy, and love that fills its pages.”

  —La Vanguardia (Mexico)

  “[A] tale of love, war, and adventure. . . . [Isle of Passion is] a gem—a veritable gem—which places its author among the heavyweights of Colombian literature.”

  —El Espectador (Colombia)

  Praise for The Dark Bride

  “A cacophony of voices gives the story a fine, sexy momentum, a variety of narrative vectors resolving into vigorous, propulsive suspense.”

  —San Francisco Chronicle

  “The Dark Bride is a reporter’s novel, full of tantalizing repartee and details too piquant and quirky to have been invented. . . . The story unfolds slowly, deep in the jungle, by the banks of the Magdalena . . . [and] every character and scene in the Maupassant tale gets its tropical equivalent.”

  —New York Times

  “A powerful love story. . . . Restrepo’s voluptuous, lyrical prose makes this book hard to put down. And the sheer beauty of the language makes one wish it would never end. . . . Only a master like Restrepo could have made so palatable the gritty reality of a life in what we call the Third World.”

  —Dallas Morning News

  “The Dark Bride brilliantly captures a slice of Colombian life relatively unknown to the outside world. . . . A novel overflowing with fecund description, raw humanity, and humor.”

  —Críticas

  “Reminiscent of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, the novel indicts society for its ruthlessness and its indifference to individual pain. . . . The Dark Bride is worth reading for what it tells us about the struggle for survival on the dark margins of society.”

  —Washington Post

  “An illuminating book born out of a chain of tiny revealed secrets, The Dark Bride captures with tough humor and intelligence stories clearly fed by the real voices of doctors and oil workers, prostitutes and their clients. As the novel affirms, they have the gift of telling their tragedies without pathos or vanity.”

  —The Guardian (London)

  “Take the style of fellow Colombian Gabriel García Márquez and kick it up a notch with the manic pace of contemporary news reporting, and you have the imaginative chaotic tone of the latest novel by former journalist Laura Restrepo. . . . This compendium of anecdotes and fables adds up to a vision that is both idealistic and cynical, humorous and tragic.”

  —Richmond Times-Dispatch

  “A tragic and vivid love story.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “It’s hard not to get caught up in Restrepo’s sexy, whirlwind narrative, which also reveals much about the effects of the global economy and Latin American politics on one small corner of Colombia.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Restrepo weaves an intriguing story. . . . A bestselling novelist in her homeland, The Dark Bride is a fine introduction to U.S. readers who will undoubtedly compare her to Chile’s Isabel Allende and her own country’s master journalist-turned-novelist Gabriel García Márquez.”

  —Miami Herald

  Also by Laura Restrepo

  The Dark Bride

  The Angel of Galilea

  Leopard in the Sun

  A Tale of the Dispossessed

  Delirium

  Copyright

  Originally published in Spanish as La Isla de la Pasión by Editorial Norma, Colombia, 1999.

  A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2005 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  ISLE OF PASSION. Copyright © 2005 by Laura Restrepo. Translation copyright © 2005 by Dolores M. Koch. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  First Harper Perennial edition published 2006.

  The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

  Restrepo, Laura. [La
Isla de la pasión. English] Isle of passion : a novel / Laura Restrepo ; translated by Dolores M. Koch.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN-10 0-06-008898-2 ISBN-13 978-0-06-008898-9

  I. Koch, Dolores. II. Title.

  PQ8180.28.E7255I8513 2005

  863'.64—dc22

  2005045077

  ISBN-10 0-06-008899-0 (pbk.)

  ISBN-13 978-0-06-008899-6 (pbk.)

  EPub Edition August 2013 ISBN 9780062312631

  06 07 08 09 10 /RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  * Actually, Lieutenant Arnaud was not promoted to captain until August 26, 1913 (Author’s note).

  *As in Adela Fernández’s El Indio Fernández, Panorama Editorial, 3rd ed., Mexico, 1986.