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‘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
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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.
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‘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 Tóibín
‘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 Tóibín
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Reviews
'Animated by keen imaginative empathy and a strong sense of place, this moving, satisfying, layered novel will transport you to the amethyst Aegean'
'Ruth Padel brings a poet's ear for internal musical pattern, and deep and loving knowledge of the stones, light and colours of Crete, as she winds us into coils within coils of a family's dark history. She combines dramatic storytelling with moving reflectiveness, asking us to think again about whether it is better to remember or to forget?'
'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'
'I can't recommend this highly enough. Beautiful, moving, exquisitely layered and compelling. I absolutely loved it'
'Entrancing - a wonderfully rich and absorbing novel, delightful in its evocation of Crete and its many-layered history.'
'Best books to read this Autumn'
'An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling'
'A thought-provoking novel of identity, history and our times.'
'A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story.'
'A slow-burner of a novel, lyrical and psychologically astute.'