The Story Behind the Story

Jeff Gross actually lived this world.

Island Time isn't simply a story he decided to set on a beautiful Greek island.

Gross spent 14 months living on Astypalea between 1980 and 1982.

He became immersed in a remarkable small community filled with unforgettable personalities, traditions, humor and laughter.

Life moved according to the seasons, the moods of the sea, and the arrival of the ferry once a week. It was Shangri-La, but the outside world was just beginning to intrude.

Jeff Gross was there.

He lived among its people.

He experienced their world.

Decades later, those experiences became the inspiration for the novel and motion picture Island Time.

This isn't the Greece of postcards.

It is the Greece Jeff Gross lived.

Photos © Clay Lord