Children of the Volcano : Finding Freedom and Making a Home for Three in Sicily

A beautiful, humorous memoir of a single mother's move to a Sicilian island to give her daughters a childhood to remember. Reeling from a broken relationship, Ros Belford decided the best chance she had of healing and giving her daughters a childhood to remember was to move to Italy and live by the sea. After a false start on an island full of machismo and mafia they find Salina, a beautiful small and lush volcanic island. Izzy and Juno grow up playing on the beach, learning to swim over volcanic bubbles, hearing tales of Aeolian witches and watching Stromboli erupt on the horizon. It is not entirely paradise, however. The school is atrocious, there are power cuts and an earthquake. But an eclectic community of islanders take them to their hearts, friendships are forged and Salina becomes a place Ros and her daughters can thrive. Full of humanity, vitality, honesty and optimism, Children of the Volcano is for anyone unwilling to give up dreams of adventure and excitement simply because of parenthood, lack of money and not getting things right the first time.