Arrested Song

âA very accomplished novelâ Louis de Bernieres, author of Captain Corelli''s Mandolin
âHard to put this book downâ Sofka Zinovieff
âAn epic, page turning story, of longing and bravery... a must readâ Nadia Marks
Shortlisted for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction 2024

Calliope Adham â" young, strong-willed, and recently widowed â" is schoolmistress in the village of Molyvos when Hitlerâs army invades Greece in 1941. Well-read and linguistically gifted, she is recruited by the Germans to act as their liaison officer. It is the beginning of a personal and national saga that will last for several decades.

Calliopeâs wartime duties bring her into close contact with Lieutenant Lorenz Umbreit, the Wehrmacht commander. The schoolmistress is an active member of the Greek Resistance, yet her friendship with the German blossoms against all odds, in a fishing village seething with dread and suspicion.

Amid privation and death, the villagersâ hostility finally erupts, but the bond between Calliope and Umbreit survives, taking unforeseeable turns as Greece is ravaged by civil war and oppressed by military dictatorship. It is against this turbulent background that Calliope emerges as a champion for girls'' and women''s rights.

ARRESTED SONG is a haunting, sumptuous novel, weaving the private and the historic into a vivid tapestry of Greek island life. Spanning over three decades, it chronicles the story of an extraordinary woman and her lifelong struggle against social and political tyranny.

âCompellingâ Dean Kalimniou
âWonderfulâ Anna Porter
âBeautifully writtenâ Carol P Christ
âOne of the best novels Iâve read about modern Greece... a truly original workâ Diana Farr Louis
âI savoured every wordâ Peter Barber