Reese Witherspoon has selected Allegra Goodman’s Isola as the latest pick for her popular book club.
Goodman’s novel, published Tuesday by Dial, follows Marguerite, a young 16th-century noblewoman who is marooned on an island with her lover and must survive in the wilderness. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, which was inspired by a true story, “Goodman’s sweeping page turner is at once historical and modern, intimate and epic, personal and powerful.”
In an interview with the Audible blog, Goodman said she did research into the real Marguerite and into 16th-century France before writing the novel. “There was no definitive story of her life, and all accounts of her adventure were brief,” she said. “Let’s just say the historical record is scanty. This meant I had space as a novelist to imagine Marguerite’s story. I loved that she was a real person and I was fascinated by her adventure.”
Witherspoon announced the book’s selection in a video on Instagram. “What’s crazy is that it’s a true story,” she said. “It’s a girl. It’s a love story. It’s the wilderness. She fights a bear. She survives in the freezing cold, and she becomes the hero of her own story.…She really fights a bear. There’s a whole scene in there where she fights a bear. It’s insane.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
