The Infinity Pool

By: Jessica Norrie

Narrated by: Jack Wynters

Adrian Hartman is the charismatic director of the Serendipity holiday community, set among pine trees on a sunbaked island. His job is to ensure the perfect mindful break, with personal growth and inner peace guaranteed. His guests return year after year to bare their souls. For some, Adrian is Serendipity.

But this year Adrian isn't there, and nobody knows the reason why. Things have changed: staff and guests are bewildered without their leader and the simmering hostility of the local villagers is beginning to boil over. Is the atmosphere of menace connected with Adrian's absence? And will life on the island ever be the same again?

As romance turns sour and conflict threatens the stability of both communities, everyone has to find their own way to survive. This evocative novel explores the effect of well-intentioned tourism on a traditional community and questions the real meaning of getting away from it all.

©2015 Jessica Norrie (P)2016 Jessica Norrie

Lost interest in this story about half-way through

I don't really know what happened to my interest in this story. It started off well enough, with several interesting characters getting to know one another while staying at a seaside resort. I felt this story had a lot of potential, but somewhere along the line, I lost interest in everyone except Maria.

I'm sure some of it had to do with the monotony of the descriptions of the day to day running of the resort. Perhaps if it had focused more completely on the lives/personalities of the characters as they interacted with one another, it may have made it more interesting.

It's not a bad read, but I was left a bit unfulfilled, and I didn't feel there was closure for any of the characters either.

The narration was good, and the characters personalities really came through in the different voices. A lot of different accents - English, Irish, Australian, American, and the villagers. He did a really good job.

I'm not sure if I would give this author another try, but would definitely check out more by this narrator.

The infinity pool

Any additional comments?

The story takes a look at what happens when a traditional small island community clashes with the Western interlopers from a nearby holiday camp that offers 'Peace and Happiness'
A very interesting premise and quiet interesting

Beautifully written and compelling

I listened to the audio book of The Infinity Pool narrated by Jack Wynters. I enjoyed the readers voice interpretation of this novel and thought his tones suited the subject matter of the book very well.

The Infinity Pool is beautifully written and compelling and I found this book to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is about a vacation camp on a remote island where mainly British people go to recuperate from their stressful jobs and to take various courses aimed at developing them as people.

The camp leader is a charismatic man named Adrian, who is a bit of a womanizer but who is very good at helping other people rediscover the good in their lives and re-energize. As a result, Adrian is popular with the guests, many of whom come specifically to take his courses.

The book starts with Adrian feeling slightly disgruntled with his life and role at the camp and looking for a way to reignite his enthusiasm and vigor. He meets a young local girl and sets out to woo her as he finds her company gives him a new lease on youth.

His relationship with the girl ends and his very modern and cavalier attitude offends the locals who live in a nearby village. It is the last straw in an already strained relationship and a group of young men from the village set out to cause disruption at the camp and among the guests. At times, their actions are outright hostile and even criminal.

This is not a run of the mill mystery, it has a heavy focus on characterization and the development of selected characters in the book as they go through a period/s at the camp and undergo a healing process which allows them to move on from their pasts and change as people.

I enjoyed this story and was happy with the ending except for one small thread which wasn’t tied up for me. Other readers may not think that and it isn’t significant, just a small niggle for me.