The Secret Resort Of Nostalgia

by Sahlan Diver

Twenty-two year old graduate, Mike Denning, takes employment in an experimental town, on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. Fascinating location, excellent wages, food and accommodation all paid for, fine seaside summer weather, and a gorgeous young lady boss who happens to be unattached. If only the place weren't so strange. As Mike begins to investigate, he realises he too is being watched. Can he find out what's really going on without putting his life in danger? One thing he does know - he's stuck on this island with no way of escape.

354 pages, Paperback

Published January 14, 2019

About the author

Educated at Dover Grammar School, Kent, and then at the University Of Birmingham, where I studied microbiology and philosophy. After variously working as a shadow puppet theater manager and prospective jazz saxophonist, I taught myself computer programming, becoming a freelance consultant. My writing career began, aged nine and a half, when I won a national TV children's short story competition. Thereafter my writing became dormant, apart from a couple of Edinburgh Fringe comedy reviews, until it was revived in protest against a religious movement I once belonged to. Through the latter experience I gained an understanding of the mechanism by which the arrogance of cults brings out the very worst in human nature. It also provided much useful character study for my subsequent writing, as, for much more positive reasons, did my permanent move to live in the Republic Of Ireland, thirty years ago.

Reviews

[Ellie Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

~About

Set mainly in Ireland in the 1990s, Mike Denning recants the tale of how he was assigned to work at the secret resort of Nostalgia, documenting key moments on the mysterious island resort.

Mike is to work officially for a mysterious figure known only as ‘The Earl’ and is instructed to keep secret all he is about to learn about Nostalgia. The Earl and those close to him formed the secret town of Nostalgia on a remote, never-before inhabited island, where people can live an ideal lifestyle, away from the greed of modern society. However, the island has some peculiarities that Mike is beginning to question; a disappeared sculptress, a mysterious research institute, and places he’s forbidden to go without reason.

Can such an idealistic place really be as perfect as it seems, or is something more sinister afoot?
Mike soon discovers that he’s not the only one with questions about the mysterious island of Nostalgia.


~Characters

Throughout the story, three characters played a key role: Mike Denning, Saoirse, and a man known officially as The Earl.

Mike Denning, a twenty-two year old graduate from England has been assigned to interview people and gather data about Nostalgia. Kind and caring, Mike immediately seemed likable as a character. He was also curious, resourceful, and intelligent, with a heart full of romance. At all points of the story, he worked hard to find out more about the island of Nostalgia and its inner workings. He never gave up, showing great determination even in the face of multiple obstacles, including a devastating heartbreak.

Saoirse acts as Mike’s guide around Nostalgia and became his main love interest of the story. She has a quiet, calm, and intelligent presence, always taking in more than she lets on. She was very beautiful and possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the island of Nostalgia. Both mysterious and flirtatious, there was something about Saoirse that I couldn’t put my finger on. It seemed as though she was holding onto a secret, one which we – as readers – are not permitted to know until the end of the story.

Finally, we come to The Earl, a secretive man who seems overly proud of his accomplishments. He appeared nice enough at the start of the story and had an overall idealistic type of nature, believing in a more socially responsible version of capitalism. As an idealist myself, I came to admire The Earl’s perspective and how the island town of Nostalgia had been organised and maintained over the years, to provide a literal sense of nostalgia, self-sufficiency, and a sort of past-time innocence.


~Positive Aspects

There was much to enjoy about The Secret Resort of Nostalgia, further details of which can be found below:

-The unique, first-person narration had a very deep, thoughtful, and personal tone to it, reflecting on the main character’s past.

-The author draws you in with a clever, mysterious, and intriguing idea which he builds upon as the novel continues.

-I loved how mysterious the hidden island of Nostalgia seemed: keeping its own time, being heavily guarded, and having its own unique currency. In addition, having one area of the island not being labelled on the official Nostalgia map led me to ask questions. It immediately seemed suspicious to me, as though something were being deliberately hidden from Nostalgia’s residents.

-I love how the island is described, as ‘enchanting,’ with everything being crafted beautifully in comparison to the modern day world: roof gardens, a great glass dome, cast iron bridges, having small local stores instead of mainland supermarkets, and more.

-I also liked how Nostalgia was structured, with different gates in the main wall named after what the sector catered toward, e.g. Theatre Gate, etc.


~Negative Aspects

The only negative I could identify was that there were quite a few noticeable typos in the book. Therefore, I feel that the novel could do with a good proofread.


~Memorable Quotes

There were many fine quotes within this story, however, I eventually settled on the following four.

1) ‘People don’t think- That’s the problem. They let others do their thinking for them.’

2) ‘Even intelligent people can get involved in long-running, childish disputes, which do no good to either side.’

3) ‘People can develop an appreciation of quality, given the opportunity.’

4) ‘Full employment, lucrative employment, meaningful employment, are the necessary preconditions for a harmonious and safe society, free of the social dysfunction characterising the modern world.’


~Overview

Overall, The Secret Resort of Nostalgia was an excellent, well-written novel about an idealistic experiment to escape the disadvantages of the modern world, in search of something better.

Love, idealism, mystery, and deception grace these pages, making for a remarkable novel that I couldn’t put down.

My Rating: 5 stars.
Recommended to: lovers of mysterious tales involving deception, love, and above all – nostalgia.

Note: Recommended to those aged 18 + as there are adult themes such as sex mentioned throughout.

[Vigilant Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title – The Secret Resort of Nostalgia
Author – Sahlan Diver
Genre – Mystery Thriller
Word Count - 86,000
Rating – Five stars out of five.
No. 07 - 2022
Posted 2/18/2022

My Impressions: Very involved story of clever lies, gullible people, and love. Borders on fantasy.
Main Characters:
Mike Denning – age 22, electronic engineering and computer programming.
The Earl, - ultra wealthy and cunning.
Saoirse – age 26, personal assistant to the Earl.

Mike Denning is contacted by a friend from the past about filling in for him on a job he was doing until felled by a freak accident. The job is documenting details of a resort town on an island ninety miles off the far SW coast of Ireland. The only way to access the steeply bluffed island’s rocky, dangerous coast is by an underground railway that takes six hours to traverse.
The people dwelling on the island have been culled to only those who have no close living relatives. Suspicious huh? What dastardly, unspeakable deeds might be taking place out there?
Mike arrives at the Earl’s massive estate and sees the most beautiful girl he has ever laid eyes on, At the interview, Mike is convinced the position is legitimate and he agrees to the short-term employment.
On the island, Mike checks into the hotel and then begins taking photos and interviewing people who live there. Everyone is happy, employed and has a high standard of living. Most people live in conventional housing, but some called the hill people live in homes cut deeply back into a steep hillside.
He and Saoirse begin to interact, and he fast falls in love with her. But some things he sees or suspects don’t add up, so he begins investigating. Then the truth of the ‘island’ unfolds.

The story was enjoyable, and I recommend it. There are some lightly detailed sexual situations.

The editing needs attention. Extra and missing commas are the main issues along with other occasional errors.
Sentence structures are mostly okay with several exceptions.
Character Development is excellent for major characters.
Details and research are fabricated, so no basis for judgement
The plot is very unusual but interesting and borders on fantasy.

Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

The secret resort of Nostalgia is a mystery romance and begins with Mike Denning accepting the perfect job. He is in charge of documenting details on an island resort in Nostalgia.
The initial reaction is exciting as it’s an island with modern-day economic sustainability, and it is environmentally friendly; however, Mike soon notices that there is something suspicious. The people have no living relatives. The island is kept 30 min ahead of the mainland, and there are guards in a town when there is no crime.

The author does a good job of keeping the suspense going throughout the book. The story is written well. Why was Mike even chosen for this job was my initial question. The story does keep getting better and better, and while you are intrigued mostly with the mystery behind the resort, you do also get to see more than just the plot initial main plot.

I recommend this book to mystery readers.

[Monica Jones]

Very good ! Mysterious and compelling. Nothing is this story is ever quite what it seems. The novel held my attention throughout - I couldn't stop reading!