Mother’s Day reading
Mother’s Day is almost here! My mother is no longer here, and with two daughters of my own, the mother-daughter relationship has been on my mind a lot. It’s complicated, right? These books are either written by Greeks or set in Greece. Here are 10 mother-daughter stories to add to your list.
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NOVELS
Daughter of Ruins by Yvette Manessis Corporon
Harper Muse (October 8, 2024)
Born in America in the 1930s, when her mother died, Demitra’s father took her to live with his family on the island of Cephalonia. She soothes her loneliness by reading Greek mythology and pretends that her mother is a goddess who watches over her. As she grows older, her family tries to marry her off. She refuses and becomes embroiled in an affair with a forbidden man who ignites her passion for art and encourages her to paint those goddesses that she believes protected her.
Beautiful Elena dreamed of a life away from the Italian brothels where she was raised. But her station in life dooms her to take up the vocation she hoped to escape. While Italians occupy Cephalonia, she makes a living entertaining the soldiers. She’s content—until 1943, when the Germans arrive.
In a poor mountain village in 1921, a father grows desperate to feed his family and he sends eighteen-year-old Maria to America as a picture bride. Not only will she take the journey alone, but she’s also to marry a stranger—and she’s terrified of both.
Are these women resigned to their fate or are they brave enough to change their destiny? You’ll have to read it to find out!
Evanthia’s Gift: Book 1 in ‘The Gift Saga’ series by Effie Kammenou
Independently published (1st edition August 8, 2015)
Sophia Giannakos will settle for nothing less than the rare love her parents share. She has found her soul mate in Dean, the boy she has known her whole life — until secrets and deceptions pull them apart. No stranger to heartache, Anastacia, Sophia’s mother, attempts to comfort her, without revealing ugly family truths that could haunt her daughter’s future. In the year 1956, Anastacia, a former NYU student, finds herself in the challenging role of a single parent. Left with emotional wounds from a bad marriage, she is reluctant to trust and resists her growing feelings for Alexandros, an old acquaintance. But his persistence and unconditional love for Ana and her child is eventually rewarded and his love is returned.
In a misguided, but well-intentioned effort to protect the ones they love, both Ana and Alex keep secrets—ones that could threaten the delicate balance of their family. The story continues in the 1970’s, as their daughter attempts to negotiate between two cultures. Greek-American teenagers, Sophia and Dean, have shared a special connection since childhood. Although their desire for one another is undeniable, Dean resists her, rebelling against the pressure his father places on him to uphold his Greek heritage. When he can no longer fight his feelings, Dean asks Sophia to conceal their love. She hesitantly complies, until it becomes too much for her. Like her mother, Sophia loves with every fiber of her soul, leaving her shattered when Dean pulls away from his family, culture and ultimately his love for her, leaving her no choice but to find a life different than the one she’d hoped for. Evanthia’s Gift is a multigenerational love story spanning fifty years and across two continents, chronicling the lives that unify two families.
The House by the River by Lena Manta, translated by Gail Holst-Warhaft
Amazon Crossing (November 1, 2017)
In a small village at the foot of Mount Olympus decades before WWII, Gerasimos falls in love with the much younger Theodora, and they elope, much to everyone’s dismay. The couple, very much in love, build a family. They welcome 5 daughters, though Theodora feels bad she hasn’t given her husband a son. Finally, she gives birth to a boy with a heart defect. He dies two days later. Theodora saves her tears for when she’s alone and focuses her energy on raising her daughters. Soon, she decides that the girls should go to school and be educated, so they won’t be “stunted” like her. This opens the world to them, and the girls become determined to leave their house by the river, as soon as they are old enough.
After surviving WWII and the Nazi occupation, the girls come of age. They find their own excuses to leave and set out on their own adventures. Theodora doesn’t hear from her daughters and does her best to carry on without them. She always told them that no matter what happened in their lives, the house by the river would always be home, always be a grounding place.
Now independent and strong-willed women, the daughters have loved and lost, traveled the world, and go from what seem like the perfect lives to tragedy. They realize that they need to reconnect with their family, and that the house by the river is calling them home. It’s been 20 years since they left the village. Can they go home?
One Last Letter from Greece by Emma Cowell
Avon (November 22, 2022)
Londoner Sophie loses her mom, celebrated artist Lyndsey Kinlock, to cancer. Sophie didn’t know her father, and she and her mother were extremely close. Following her mother’s diagnosis, Sophie put her life on hold, taking a leave of absence from her business, to care for her. Alone and consumed with grief, Sophie can’t bear the empty house and struggles to go through her mother’s belongings. One day, she finds a photo with her mom’s writing on the back: “Methoni, Greece, my heaven on earth”. Among the other photos, Sophie finds what appears to be a photocopy of one of her mother’s paintings, but she’s never seen it before.
During a meeting with Lyndsey’s agent, Sophie learns that it’s the missing Methoni V, the elusive—and in high demand—fifth painting in a series of work created in Methoni. No one has been able to locate it. The agent suggests it’s likely still in Methoni, where Lyndsey did her best work. Sophie heads to Greece with a few weak leads, hoping to not only find the painting, but to escape her own reality.
As she struggles to make contacts with people in the art world, she befriends the locals. She meets Theo, but she recently broke off an engagement, and he isn’t playing for keeps. He tries to help her, and the attraction grows. And after one dead end lead after another, she finds the answers about this secret part of her mother’s life—and work—are more than she bargained for. She and Theo are further drawn together, and they both have a real shot at happiness. But will they take a chance?
Island of Secrets by Patricia Wilson
Zaffre (March 9, 2017)
Angelika Lambrakis grew up with her mom in England. Her parents left their native Crete before she was born. Her mom, Poppy, never spoke of Greece. For that matter, she’d rarely spoken about Yeorgo, Angelika’s father. All grown up and planning her wedding, Angelika is longing for the extended family she never knew. Hoping to reunite her family, she travels to Crete to find her relatives and her roots. Her grandparents welcome her with open arms. One of her uncles is not so nice — he thinks Angelika’s presence will only stir up the past. Angelika’s yiayia begins to tell the family history, beginning at the start of WWII. Maria reveals harrowing tales of suffering, survival, and loss. Angelika learns more each day but feels that something is being held back.
When Angelika and her fiancé, Niko, decide to have their wedding in Crete, they convince Poppy to go. It’s Poppy’s first trip since she left. Reluctant, she goes to make her daughter happy. Not everyone is thrilled about Poppy’s return, and a decades-old vendetta is rekindled. Seeking answers, Angelika tries to put the pieces together. When the truth is finally revealed, what happens next? Will the truth set them free, or will the consequences be deadly?
The Ladies of Managua by Eleni Gage
St. Martin’s Press (May 5, 2015)
The story takes us to Nicaragua, where three generations of strong-willed women—Mother Isabela, Daughter Ninexin, and Granddaughter Mariana, are brought together for the funeral of Isabela’s husband, Ignacio. Isabela and Ignacio raised Mariana, as Ninexin was too busy building a new Nicaragua; she and her late husband had joined the Sandinista’s Movimiento. Ninexin and Mariana’s relationship has always been strained, as Ninexin put the cause above her daughter, and Mariana resented her mother for it.
As the three are reunited, each is confronted with something life changing. How will they deal with it? How will it affect their relationships and all of their lives going forward? We meet each woman, and hear her story from her own perspective. It’s as if we are reading their diaries—their innermost thoughts. Initially I thought their stories were a little longwinded, and wondered how it all would come together. But this is precisely how real journals often are. We learn the details of these women’s lives, what has made them who they are, what has led them to the choices they have made. It all makes sense when each are faced with a personal crisis of sorts, different events that could change everything and affect everyone, in untold ways. These crises force them to rethink who they are, what they’ll do—and what they mean to each other.
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MEMOIRS
Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnston
Allen & Unwin (April 4, 2023)
What happens when you take your 85-year-old mother to live with you on a Greek island? A strikingly original, funny, and forensic examination of love and finding home.
In life, as in myth, women are the ones who are supposed to stay home like Penelope, weaving at their looms, rather than leaving home like Odysseus. Meet eighty-five-year-old Barbara and her sixty-two-year-old writer-daughter Susan, who asked her mother-on a whim-if she wanted to accompany her to live on the Greek island of Kythera. What follows is a moving unravelling of the mother-daughter relationship told in irresistible prose.
This story is about love and finding home, amid the stories of the people, olives and wonders of the birthplace of Aphrodite.
Not Even My Name by Thea Halo
Picador Paper; First Edition (June 2, 2001)
Not Even My Name is the unforgettable story of Sano Halo’s survival, as told to her daughter, Thea, and of their trip to Turkey in search of Sano’s home some 70 years after her exile. Sano was a 10-year-old girl when, due to the genocide carried out during and after WW I in Turkey, bringing to a tragic end the 3000-year history of the Pontic Greeks. During this time, almost 2 million Pontic Greeks and Armenians were slaughtered, and millions of others like Sano, were exiled.
Sano was torn from her ancient, pastoral way of life in the mountains and sent on a death march that annihilated her family. Stripped of everything she had ever held dear, even her name, Sano was sold by her surrogate family into marriage when still a child to a man three times her age.
Follow Sano’s marriage, the raising of her ten children in New York City, and her transformation as an innocent girl who was forced to move from a bucolic life to the 20th century in one bold stride.
Unpacking for Greece: Travel in a Land of Fortressed, Fables, Ferries, & Feta (Book 1 in the ‘Packing for Greece’ travel series) by Sally Jane Smith
Journeys in Pages (June 1, 2023)
While traveling through Sri Lanka in 2006, Sally’s bus was involved in a head-on collision, which “broke my body and my spirit”. Her body healed, but her wanderlust waned. When she discovered a travel diary from her mother’s 1978 trip to Greece, she had a revelation—a trip to Greece could not only release her from her fears and reignite her passion for travel, but also, it might provide some connection to her late mother and bridge the gaps in their relationship.
Though out of “travel shape”, physically and mentally, she packed a suitcase, her mother’s diary, and on her small budget, set out for a trip that would change her life in endless ways.
When the Past Awakens: A Mother’s Pain by Helena Kidd and Maria Avraam
Xlibris AU (December 2, 2019)
Maria Avraam’s real and brutally honest account of her life and thoughts, straight from the heart, with emotional intensity is revealed by her daughter, Helena Kidd. Had Maria not documented her internal suffering in her diaries, her story may never have been told.
Her domineering mother was a constant battle of the mind and spirit. Maria endured mental and physical abuse from an arranged and forced marriage to a stranger. Arriving in Australia from her village in Cyprus presented even more challenges especially when she found herself alone, a deserted wife, with three small children to raise. Maria triumphs through the odds and proves to be a survivor. Following on, is ‘The Richmond House’ written by Helena Kidd, Maria’s first born. Helena brings a lighter tone, with her snippets of family life growing up in her uncle’s home. ‘The Richmond House’ is set in the 1960s and 1970s, overlapping in part to ‘When the Past Awakens’.
When The Past is Left by Helena Kidd (Eleni Press; 2nd edition-February 21, 2024) is a companion book, filled with short stories, essays, prose, elegies, and messages of love, praise and support from a community who shared in Helena’s grief at her mother’s passing. Helena explores the past through generational history and accounts of growing old, death and grief. The stories in this generational history form an anchor of love and pay tribute to her brave and resilient mother.
Mothers and Daughters
And there you have it! 10 books about mothers and daughters. Add these to your list. Hint: They make great gifts for your mother or mother figure in your life. If you’re lucky enough to still have your mom, give her a big giant hug! Happy Mother’s Day!
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