diff --git a/src/configobj/__init__.py b/src/configobj/__init__.py
index 928c208..8286b0a 100644
--- a/src/configobj/__init__.py
+++ b/src/configobj/__init__.py
@@ -1212,7 +1212,7 @@ def _load(self, infile, configspec):
 
         if isinstance(infile, six.string_types):
             self.filename = infile
-            if os.path.isfile(infile):
+            if os.path.isfile(infile) or os.path.islink(infile):
                 with open(infile, 'rb') as h:
                     content = h.readlines() or []
             elif self.file_error: