Imprint
- Corsair
- Corsair
- Corsair
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
An artist turns back to her roots and discovers they are not what she thought. Daughters of the Labyrinth is a contemporary story, for an era of instability, about love, loss and memory, parents and children, the fragility of life, and the forgotten Jews of Crete.
'An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling' Sunday Times
'A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story' Irish Times, Best Books 2021
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This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared.
Broken by the death of her husband, Ri, a successful international artist living in London, returns to her ancestral home of Crete. The Greek island is known for its ancient myth and mass tourism, but when Ri returns she finds a secret, darker history. As the home she left deals with a looming Brexit, and the home she rediscovered grapples with a refugee crisis, Ri confronts her changing identity. Unearthing stories from her family's past leaves a permanent mark on her understanding of herself, her relationship to her country, and her art.
Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family.
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'Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter's passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel's brings a poet's eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy' Colm Toibin
More books by Ruth Padel
Praise for Daughters of The Labyrinth
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The novel is precise and contemporary, offering a poet's sense of immersion - a very present Britain and an ever-present past in Crete, both transformed by a beautiful imagination. The book is sunlit and love-drenched, magical and historical, surprising, elegant, and beautifully written. Ruth Padel's latest novel replenishes the heart. - author of Mayflies
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Padel deftly sketches the complications of family as she teases away at questions of identity and home. Animated by keen imaginative empathy and a strong sense of place, this moving, satisfying, layered novel will transport you to the amethyst Aegean even as the real thing remains out of reach. - Daily Mail
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Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter's passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel's brings a poet's eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy.
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Ruth Padel brings a poet's ear for internal musical pattern, and deep and loving knowledge of the stones, light and colours of Crete, as she winds us into coils within coils of a family's dark history. She combines dramatic storytelling with moving reflectiveness, asking us to think again about whether it is better to remember or to forget?
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