Daughters of The Labyrinth

Daughters of The Labyrinth

$24.99 AUD $19.99 AUD

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Author: Ruth Padel

Format: Paperback

Number of Pages: 336


'An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling' Sunday Times 'A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story' Irish Times, Best Books 2021 ---------- This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared. Broken by the death of her husband, Ri, a successful international artist living in London, returns to her ancestral home of Crete. The Greek island is known for its ancient myth and mass tourism, but when Ri returns she finds a secret, darker history. As the home she left deals with a looming Brexit, and the home she rediscovered grapples with a refugee crisis, Ri confronts her changing identity. Unearthing stories from her family's past leaves a permanent mark on her understanding of herself, her relationship to her country, and her art. Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family. ---------- 'Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter's passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel's brings a poet's eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy' Colm Toibin
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J
Josephine Emery
Into That Grecian Labyrinth

Daughters of the Labyrinth is a beautifully-constructed novel that becomes an achingly heart-felt tragedy as its layers are peeled back. Although it opens at an art gallery in contemporary London it’s soon back in history-drenched Crete and the themes set up in the opening chapter begin to play out.

There’s something about Greek islands as settings for novels, Homeric verses and Grecian tragedies. The author of Daughters, Ruth Padel, is an accomplished scholar, poet and novelist. So accomplished that I was on my guard as I read, suspecting I was in for a well-constructed but hollow work suitable for university coursework.

I was wrong. I was moved to tears by a family tragedy (which is what all Greek drama has been since 400BC) that plays out within a vicious and violent war. So moved that I took it to the local post office and mailed it to my sister so that she and I might share some of that family trauma and mingle it with our own. Because that’s why we read, isn’t it? To find a resonance between the story told and the stories that lie within our own hearts.

As usual the book arrived quickly, with no fuss, in perfect condition from Book Grocer and when my sister returns it, it will join my steadily growing Book Grocer fuelled library.

Description
Author: Ruth Padel

Format: Paperback

Number of Pages: 336


'An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling' Sunday Times 'A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story' Irish Times, Best Books 2021 ---------- This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared. Broken by the death of her husband, Ri, a successful international artist living in London, returns to her ancestral home of Crete. The Greek island is known for its ancient myth and mass tourism, but when Ri returns she finds a secret, darker history. As the home she left deals with a looming Brexit, and the home she rediscovered grapples with a refugee crisis, Ri confronts her changing identity. Unearthing stories from her family's past leaves a permanent mark on her understanding of herself, her relationship to her country, and her art. Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family. ---------- 'Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter's passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel's brings a poet's eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy' Colm Toibin