This “fiercely absorbing, passionate novel” (The Guardian), a bestseller in the UK, tells the epic tale of two sisters in the war-torn streets of Nazi­-occupied Athens.

In 2008 Antigone Perifanis returns to her old family home in Athens after 60 years in exile. She has come to attend the funeral of her only son, Nikitas, who was born in prison, and whom she has not seen since she left him as a baby.

At the same time, Nikitas’s English widow Maud – disturbed by her husband’s strange behaviour in the days before his death – starts to investigate his complicated past. She soon finds herself reigniting a bitter family feud, and discovers a heartbreaking story of a young mother caught up in the political tides of the Greek Civil War, forced to make a terrible decision that will blight not only her life but that of future generations...

This "fiercely absorbing, passionate novel" ("The Guardian"), a bestseller in the UK, tells the epic tale of two sisters in the war-torn streets of Athens. Taking readers from Nazi-occupied Athens through the military junta years and on into the troubled city of recent times, it vividly reveals what happens when ideology threatens to subsume our sense of humanity.

“A fiercely absorbing, passionate novel.” –The Guardian

“Zinovieff’s portrayal of Greece is beautiful and believable, engaging all the senses.”
–The Spectator

“An engrossing saga of a family riven by ideological conflict and fractured by war.”
–The Observer

“An arresting, finely woven first novel.”
–The Economist

“A broad and enriching story of the early 20th century in Greece... An expansive historical framework governs the action of this impressive debut, but it is Zinovieff's scrupulous eye for cultural curiosity which gives the story its sinew and underlying humility.”
–The Independent