The Lost Island

Now in paperback, a thrilling adventure story about two boys who embark on a magical trip to a mysterious island on Irish coast, in search of one boy's father.

Michael Farrell was forced to grow up quickly after his father disappeared hunting for treasure on the fabled lost island of Inishmanann. Struggling to get by, he and his mother receive a mysterious message one evening from a ragged tramp who stops by their farm. The old man has proof that Michael’s father is alive!

Although no one seeking the island has ever returned, Michael and his friend Joe board the first boat they can, only to find out it is run by a treacherous gang of sailors. Braving the unknown seas, they embark on a grand search for Michael's missing father, the spectacular fortune, and the island's long-lost secret. Set amid Ireland’s picturesque west coast, plots against Michael and the adventures that befall him make this magical and suspenseful narrative a page-turning, rough and tumble adventure story.“When Miss Dillon writes of the sea, one can almost get the tang of salt and hear the waves breaking on a rocky shore.” —The Irish Independent

“A thoroughgoing adventure story with all the details of sailing, place and character brushed in delicately. Plenty of action and a dour sense of humour. Unreservedly recommended.” —The Times (London)

“Beginning quietly with an ordinary market day, the book gathers speed and holds the reader enthralled to its conclusion.” —The Horn Book
"As original and as full of apprehensive suspense as a Graham Greene entertainment for grown-ups." —The New Statesman

"Simply a good writer....Loving and understanding people, and concerned to tell stories that are as exciting as adventure stories should be but in which the events are tied firmly to human possibility." —The Times Literary SupplementEilís Dillon (1920–1994) wrote more than thirty books for young people, as well as fiction for adults, including the best–selling historical novel Across the Bitter Sea, about the struggle for Irish independence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Richard Kennedy (1910–1989) illustrated several of Eilís Dillon’s books for children. In addition to collaborating on the early design of Puffin Books, Kennedy provided illustrations for several of the press’s most celebrated writers, including J.M. Barrie and Astrid Lindgren.