Greek Island Escape by Patricia Wilson
Genre: Contemporary fiction, women's fiction, historical fiction, family drama, Dual Timeline
Read: 15th August 2020
Goodreads
Amazon
Published: 16th April 2020
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
'I am Sofia. I am searching for my daughter, born 1st November 1972. Can you help me?'
On the beautiful beaches of Crete, an old woman is handing out scraps of paper. Sofia, eighty-five years old, unable to speak, is desperate to find a daughter she has never known. After a tragic childhood in Athens and a soaring career as a singer, the brutal treatment of the man she loved by a tyrannical regime forced her to give up her daughter mere days after her birth. Now she longs to be reunited with her child before it's too late.
Meanwhile in London, Zoe is searching too. In the months since the disappearance of her teenage daughter, Zoe's life has crumbled apart. Her husband has left her, her son feels forgotten, and every day is a struggle. But Zoe is desperate to track her daughter down, even if she doesn't want to be found . . .
MY REVIEW:
From the title and the cover, I thought GREEK ISLAND ESCAPE would be a nice light read but it actually turned out to be a tragic and moving story that was so beautiful and heartbreaking it brought me to tears many times throughout. I cannot say how much I truly loved this book!
Crete, present day: The story opens with Sofia, an 85 year old woman, who has been unable to speak for over forty years. Her life has been one of tragedy and heartbreak and now she is continuing her search for her daughter she gave up for a better and safer life just a few days after she was born. Each day, she travels around Athens and journeys to Crete handing out a handwritten message she has toiled over to everyone she meets.
"I am Sofia, searching for my daughter, born in Korydallos prison, Athens, 1st November 1972. Can you help me?"
Some people give her money, some ignore her but for the locals of the island of Crete as well as in parts of Athens, they know her as Yiaya (meaning grandmother). To them she is a local identity, a once well known singer before she lost her voice and quite possibly her mind. But no one knows her story - her real story - or why she hands out hundreds of slips of paper to locals and tourists every day of every month of every year searching for a child that, by all accounts, she was never known to have had.
Crete, 1944: Dressed in an emerald green taffeta dress, 10 year old Sofia Bambaki is excited to hear her mother Alexa perform a collection of Christmas carols and popular songs before some visiting British dignitaries. She couldn't wait to make her way through the front of theatre to the seat reserved for her alongside her father and brothers to watch her mama. But she was late making her way in and could only watch from rear wall. As her mother ended her final song, there was huge eruption and noise and Sofia found herself buried under a mountain of bodies as she called for her mama. But as she looked around, only the wall she'd been standing against remained...the rest of the theatre was gone, along with her entire family.
Sofia's childhood was harsh having been sent to an orphanage, from which she escaped, to starving on the streets. She meets 14 year old Markos who takes pity on her and gives her some food before he disappears again. She is caught stealing a loaf of bread but begs for leniency from the bakery owner before he takes her in...and teaches her how to knead dough and bake bread. But her life continues to be harsh from the night she was made an orphan to the most harrowing days of all, imprisoned inside Korydallos prison. There she meets Anna Despotakis and her gunta colonel husband, who runs the prison, and her life changes forever.
London, present day: Despite her successful career as a youth magistrate, Zoe Johnson's life is falling apart. Seven months ago her 16 year old daughter Megan ran away from home, leaving her mother a vague note telling her not worry and not to look for her. Then her ailing mother who had lived with them returned to Crete shortly after Megan's disappearance and then her husband left her. Now today is Megan's 17th birthday and what would have been a joyous occasion brings only sadness from her memories of happier times and grief for what she now misses.
Then Zoe receives a call from police in Manchester to say they have her daughter in custody for suspected shoplifting. Manchester? What is Megan doing there? But when she arrives she is devastated to learn that it wasn't her daughter, but someone who looked a lot like her who had possession of Megan's rucksack which held her birth certificate, her passport and a family photo of Zoe, Frank, Megan and her brother Josh. If this girl wasn't Megan, then she must know her.
Using her experience as a youth magistrate, Zoe questions the young woman and manages to get her name, Emily, and how she knew Megan. Emily is released into Zoe's custody and the two visit shelters and old haunts in their search for Megan...but it all goes horribly wrong. And Zoe finds herself in a pit of despair, unable to continue her search.
After spending seven months on the streets, Megan wants nothing more than to save enough money to buy her a ticket to Crete to stay with her Granny Anna. Having been questioned by police for possession of drugs, she was released with her rucksack containing her passport and with enough money she has saved from busking, Megan makes her way to Crete. When she arrives, she finds the mention of her granny's name brings frowns and anger from locals that she cannot understand. Her Greek is very poor so she is unable to decipher why her kind and caring granny, who would not hurt a soul, appears to be so hated here.
WOW! While may be a rather comprehensive outline of the tapestry of stories, it does not even begin to come close to all the threads that will ultimately weave them all together. Steeped in modern Greek history that I had no idea about that just breaks your heart at the atrocities dealt many Greek people who just wanted a fair and free life of equality for their country...and got tortured for their troubles. At the height of the gunta regime, these soldiers made the Nazis' treatment of the Jews pale in comparison. It was heartwrenching to read of their harsh treatment for doing nothing wrong but fight for fairness and freedom for their people.
The characters of Sofia and Markos were expertly drawn and I felt an affinity to them, despite wanting to smack Markos about the head at times for his stubbornness. And I loved the character of Zacharia, the baker who took the young Sofia in and gave her a purpose in life. He was like a father to her and she, a daughter to him. Their relationship was a special one that brought tears to my eyes.
I loved Zoe and Megan in the present day storyline, as they both search for the answers that would bring them together again. And despite the fact Sofia was unable to speak, the grief she carried with her, her anguish for all she had loved and lost over the years, her character shone through the strongest. Although this story is of all three women, it is Sofia's that is the most defining. And the most heartbreaking.
Told in dual timelines, which I absolutely love, Sofia's first person narrative to Zoe and Megan's third person are woven together beautifully, making GREEK ISLAND ESCAPE a beautiful, yet heart wrenching, escapism read that left me bereft when it came to an end. For I never wanted it to. I was in tears for the entire final chapters.
Be prepared to reach for the tissues with this one for the story is both poignant and harrowing that makes GREEK ISLAND ESCAPE as moving as it is unforgettable.
My first read by Patricia Wilson, GREEK ISLAND ESCAPE has a mix of contemporary, chick lit, family and historical fiction, with a little mystery thrown in, making it a recommended read that will truly leave you breathless. Honestly, it is THAT good. What a read.
I would like to thank #PatriciaWilson, #NetGalley and #ZaffreBooks and #BonnierBooksUK for an ARC of #GreekIslandEscape in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
After running her own business in Merseyside for twenty years, Patricia took early retirement and moved to the Greek island of Crete.
When she dug up a rusted machine gun in her garden, and the inhabitants of her remote mountain village came with local stories of tragedy and triumph, she knew she had to tell their account of what really happened in September 1943.
In the spring of 2017, Patricia's first novel, ISLAND OF SECRETS, quickly became an Amazon number one best seller. This was followed by her 2018 novel, VILLA OF SECRETS, and in 2019, SECRETS OF SANTORINI.
Read an Interview with Patricia Wilson detailing her life before writing, her inspiration, her move to Greece and the WW2 machine gun she unearthed in the backyard of her home in Crete.
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