A horrific betrayal sets the destiny of the Alevizopoulos family, farmers who dare to choose a side, first in the Great War of 1914-1918, then in the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922.
Theodore, the patriarch, was bestowed a significant plot of fertile farmland in the Peloponnese in recognition of his contribution in the fight against the Ottomans in the Cretan revolution of 1886-1896. After Theodore’s death, it is Callidora, the matriarch, who must protect this legacy, raising her children alone and ensuring the land is passed down from one generation to the next. But will the treacherous schemes of a neighbour ever allow this to happen? Survival might mean leaving what is most precious: home.
Finding Callidora unfolds against multiple backdrops—the unforgiving terrain of the Anatolia, the isolated Greek islands of Naxos and Crete, the bustling, chaotic streets of Cairo and later the vast expanse of Canada. Reflecting the headlines of the day, the novel follows four generations of the Alevizopoulos family, starting with Callidora’s children, Nikos, Vasilis and Katarina. Each will carry and pass on the scars of the original betrayal and their need to find the place where they belong.
Harvey says: “The essence of the novel’s narrative is about belonging. The book centres on the idea of how someone adjusts when they are born in a country where they can never hold citizenship, are raised in the ways of yet another country, and then resettle in a third country, far from their original roots. It is the immigrant’s story, but I think the question of belonging is one that most of us grapple with, no matter where we’re born. That is the universal issue explored in Finding Callidora.”
Finding Callidora
Print ISBN 978-1773240-61-9 364 pp $22.95
EBook ISBN 978-1773240-62-6 $9.99