Isola: Reese's Book Club
A Novel
Random House Publishing Group · Print & ebook · December 2, 2025
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A shocking story, made all the more stunning by the fact that it has its roots in true history.”—Jodi Picoult, author of By Any Other Name “A new generation of survival story . . . an extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of the most delicate psychological and historical fiction.”—Vogue (Best of 2025 Preview) A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.
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- Who it’s for
- A sustained historical read with enough edge to keep the conversation lively.
- Genres
- Renaissance Fiction, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction
- Published
- Random House Publishing Group, December 2, 2025
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Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A shocking story, made all the more stunning by the fact that it has its roots in true history.”—Jodi Picoult, author of By Any Other Name “A new generation of survival story . . . an extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of the most delicate psychological and historical fiction.”—Vogue (Best of 2025 Preview) A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.
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A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, Slate, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, Town & Country, Lit Hub, Christian Science Monitor • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.
What Lands Here
A sustained historical read with enough edge to keep the conversation lively.
Come here for
- book-club conversation
- historical-fiction momentum
Expect
- author-following appeal
- list-driven discovery
Where it sits
| Renaissance Fiction | 64% |
|---|---|
| Women's Fiction | 43% |
| Literary Fiction | 26% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Renaissance Fiction
- Literary Fiction
- Women's Fiction
- Authors
- Allegra Goodman
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group
- Published
- December 2, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Renaissance Fiction