: Richard Romanus
: Matoula's Echo
: Armida Publications
: 9789963255184
: 1
: CHF 5.30
:
: Erzählende Literatur
: English
: 302
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

'It' Greece's Dr. Zhivago but with a better story. And it would make a great movie'.--Kurt Russell, actor


In the tradition OfCorelli's Mandolin andEleni /em> comes an epic historical fiction novel set in Greece. ByRichard Romanus, a nominee forTheWriters Guild Of America Award For Best Original Screenplay.

br />

In the hardscrabble villages of northern Greece, strength is the only measure of a girl's beauty. But Maria Christina is delicate, nearsighted, unmarried at 17 - already a spinster, in a town with few choices- and hopeless. She's overshadowed by Matoula, the nimble, radiant older sister whom she loves but envies. Worse still, she smolders with shameful desire for handsome, worldly Yiannis, Matoula's husband, a doctor from sophisticated Athens.


It's the bitter winter of 1940, war just over the horizon, the Axis Powers massing to invade. All the able-bodied men have gone to defend the border. The women must supply their food and clothing, their bandages and bullets - on foot over mountain trails, by starlight, through deep snow. But only those deemed strong may help. Not Maria Christina. For her that's just another humiliation.


Defiantly, she joins Matoula on a supply run. And then her worst nightmare comes true: it is strong, deserving Matoula who dies. Yiannis is left a widower, torn between commitment to the resistance, where his skills are desperately needed, and responsibility for Zoitsa, the young daughter Matoula bore him.


War rages on - against the Italians, then the Germans, and then heartbreaking civil strife among the Greeks themselves. Conflict burns within Maria Christina and Yiannis, too. They are engulfed by passion, separated by duty to country, bonded by common loss and devoured by Maria Christina's guilt at surviving her more beautiful, capable sister.


A vivid epic of calamity and longing, of modernity vanquishing tradition, Matoula's Echo makes just one fragile promise of redemption in the form of Maria Christina's new awakening.


Praise For This Epic Greek Historical Fiction Romance Novel.


'A phenomenal achievement, not only because it tackles the great themes - war and civil war, heroism and sacrifice, love and loss, joy and misery, inner conflict and struggle merely to survive - but because it handles them so adroitly.'



-- Dr Darcy Powers, Professor of English at the University of Denver


 

2


Matoula always entered like a gust of wind, constantly moving, straightening, dusting, cleaning, teaching, talking, with an easy smile, always heartfelt, revealing perfect teeth. She always knew what the weather was going to be, whose garden was finest, who was fighting with whom, all the latest gossip. Glancing atPappou deep into his nap, she spoke softly while unloading an armload of packages, two small oak barrels of water, and her two year old daughter, Zoitsa, whom she routinely handed to Maria Christina, who smothered her with kisses as she took off her small shepherd’s cloak and unlaced her little boots.

“Costas Stahoulis was dancing outside hispantopolio, knee deep in the snow, twirling his draft notice from the Ministry of Defence as if it were a handkerchief.”

“It’s very comforting to know that clown will be defending us.”

“The same battalion my Yiannis will be joining in a few days.”

“That’s good. Stahoulis will probably be needing a doctor.”

Matoula coughed then covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. She loved to laugh, and nobody could make her laugh like Maria Christina. Telling a story, Maria Christina would act out all the parts using different voices, even their cow, Afendoula, and Matoula would hide her face in her hands and laugh until she had to hold her sides.

“No more! I can’t breathe!” Then she would walk around all day laughing to herself.

As if nature hadn’t been cruel enough, Maria Christina had grown up in the shadow of her stunningly beautiful sister, two years her senior, tall and strong and nimble as a deer, a goddess by any measure, and she was married. For Maria Christina her older sister was the best and worst of her life. Matoula was her eyes and ears to the world. From her earliest memories it was Matoula’s loving hand she was holding, always happy Maria Christina was tagging along, describing with exquisite clarity what Maria Christina could see only in blurred images. Especially in the warm summers, in the fields, in the garden, they were inseparable. But Matoula was also everything Maria Christina was not and, as much as she loved her, she envied her. She was aware of it, but she couldn’t help it and likened it to a termite infestation that was slowly hollowing out her soul, her ability to love, to care, and in its place leaving nothing but the growing feeling that her life had no purpose.

“You wouldn’t believe how many soldiers are on the streets.”

“I hope they’re more qualified than Stahoulis or we’re dead.”

“Now sweet?” Zoitsa’s little voice whispered in Maria Christina’s ear as her aunt took off her second boot. The girl’s eyes widened as she waited for her aunt’s response.

“After your dinner.” Maria Christina kissed her scowling cheek and directed her to play on the floor by the fireplace with the small group of barn animalsPappou had carved for her.

Matoula spoke even more softly so Zoitsa wouldn’t hear. “The talk in the village is that the Italians will have to fight for every meter. After five hundred years of Turkish occupation everyone says they’re prepared to give their life rather than be occupied again.”

“Fearless until the first bomb drops. We’re going to be occupied. The only question is will we be eating macaroni or schnitzel.”

Just then the door opened and their father,Papa Yiorgos, the village priest, and his older spinster sister, Panorea, entered. They had left before dawn to help their neighbors round up their flocks. The first big snowstorm had arrived early and c