'An evocative mix of history, food and storytelling.' EVENING
STANDARD BEST FICTION 2021 'a heart-warming, heart-breaking story
of love, life, family and, of course, baking.' RUTH HOGAN Cyprus in
the run up to the civil war of the 1970s... the threat of it hangs
in the atmosphere like a fine mist. A terrible thing, war. Against
this backdrop of war and violence, the island's inhabitants make
the best they can of their lives, building friendships, falling in
love, having children, watching people die, making mistakes. Maria
Petrakis, however, flees a brutal marriage on the island where she
has always lived for London and a new start. She opens a bakery on
Green Lanes in Harringay - the centre of the small Greek Cypriot
community whose residents have settled there to escape the war and
start again. Here she comes into her own as she heals and atones
through the kneading of bread and the selling of shamali cakes and
cinnamon pastries to her customers. There are glimpses of the lives
of her neighbours, friends and customers as they buy their bread
and cakes. There's Mrs Koutsouli, whose heart was broken when her
handsome son married a xeni, an English woman with fish-eyes and
yellow hair. There's Mrs Pantelis, driven half-mad with the grief
of losing her son, Nico, in the war. And there's Mrs Vasili who
claims to be related to Nana Mouskouri and grows her hair upwards
so she can feel closer to God. Finally, there's Elena, Maria
Petrakis' daughter-in-law, who has been suffering with the
blackness since having a baby, and whom nobody knows quite how to
help. The Making Of Mrs Petrakis is a story about the limited
choices women sometimes find themselves confronting. It's a story
about repression and mental illness and the devastation it can
wreak on lives. But above all, it is a story of motherhood and love
and of healing through the humble act of baking.
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