#BookReview — Seraphina's Song by Kathryn Gauci #HistoricalFiction #Greece @KathrynGauci

Seraphina's Song

By Kathryn Gauci

“If I knew then, dear reader, what I know now, I should have turned on my heels and left. But I stood transfixed on the beautiful image of Seraphina. In that moment my fate was sealed.”

A refugee who escapes Smyrna in 1922 disguised as an old woman. Alienated and plagued by remorse, he spirals into poverty and seeks solace in the hashish dens of Piraeus.

When he can go no lower, opportunity knocks, and Dionysos’ meets Aleko, an expert bouzouki player, recognising a rare musical talent, Aleko offers to teach him to play.

But Dionysos’ hope for a better life unravels when he meets Seraphina — the singer with the voice of a nightingale. From that moment his life is in danger and there is no going back.

"It is strange how we human beings are attracted to the things which are no good for us…"

It wasn't meant to be like this. My life was planned. I would take over my father's business and marry Rosa. But then the army of the Hellenes were defeated, and the governor of Smyrna fled, leaving us at the mercy of the Turks, and all of my dreams, all of my plans, quickly evaporated into nothing.

I thought I had died that day, along with my parents. I thought I was already dead when I reached Piraeus, but little did I know what the future had in store for me. Before I died, I had to fall in love...

From the depths of despairing poverty to the ultimate sacrifice, Seraphina's Song by Kathryn Gauci is the powerfully emotional account of a refugee who dared to love where he should not.

With a tragic sense of foreshadowing, this novel opens on a rubbish heap — a place where the desperately poor rummage in the hope of finding coins, or something useful to salvage. It is also where the dead, who had met with an unfortunate end, are left to the mercy of the dogs and the flies and the filth. It is where things are thrown away, including a life that had promised so very much. This destitute abode is a fitting place to start a novel about a man who saw the sun but wanted more — Dionysos Mavroulis wanted the stars as well. 

With an enthralling sense of time and place, Gauci has presented her readers with an utterly irresistible novel. This is the kind of book that grabs the reader from the opening sentence and does not let go until that final full stop. It is a story that is hauntingly beautiful. This compelling, page-turning narrative is, at times, profoundly unsettling as the blade draws ever nearer to the brave protagonist's throat. Although Gauci prepares her readers for the death of the protagonist from the opening page, when it happens — how it happens — still comes as a tremendous shock, so be prepared and have a box of tissues close at hand.

The hero of this desperate tragedy is Dionysos Mavroulis. Gauci depicts an unlikely hero in Dionysos, for he is nothing. He is no one. A coward, some might say, who disguised himself as an old woman so he could board the boat with the other refugees. Racked with grief and guilt, Dionysos is a character seemingly without hope, but his story is one of redemption, discovery, friendship, happiness, and love. I absolutely adored Dionysos. When his life spirals out of control, it is music that saves his soul. And when he wants to say things that cannot be said, he lets his music talk for him. Everything he has experienced, everything he has ever felt, he expresses when he picks up a dead man's bouzouki. The joy his music brings to other people is a stark contrast to the torment of his soul. Dionysos was a character that I grew to adore. His honesty, his passion, his hunger for something more than he had, made him incredibly endearing and it reminds the reader that buried deep inside of us all is something that cannot be denied, no matter what the consequences.

The heroine of this tale is Seraphina. Seraphina is like an avalanche — beautiful to look at, but once she has you in her sights, she is impossible to outrun. With a voice that can out carol the nightingale and a body that tempts a man to sin, Seraphina draws men towards her like bees to a honeypot. However, interestingly, it is not her body, nor her voice, that first captures Dionysos' attention, but her eyes — eyes that remind him of his past love. Dionysos approached this forbidden relationship with Seraphina with the strength of a dying man's last confession. The unsurmountable odds stacked against the lovers is no deterrent, they must be together, or Dionysos will surely die. Seraphina's plight is as desperate as Dionysos', and when she is with him, Seraphina dares to dream of a different future. Seraphina's backstory is one of choice. She had a choice between abject poverty and free will. She chose to sacrifice her free will. But in doing so, she loses something of herself, something which she only finds again in Dionysos' arms. I thought Seraphina's portrayal was sublime. I enjoyed reading about her and, although she knows how this could end for Dionysos, she dares to believe in his promises. 

For a story about suffering, Gauci's careful use of symbols to depict death should come as no surprise. The fact that Dionysos has to wear a dead man's clothes, and a dead man's shoes, is unsurprising, considering his situation, but he also takes up a dead man's journey and follows in his footsteps to the same catastrophic fate. I thought Gauci's very carefully crafted word building and her use of both symbols and motifs as well, for that matter, gave this book a strong foundation in which to build this hauntingly beautiful story upon. 

The historical detail in this book is poetically alluring, which seems a strange thing to say when most of the story happens in the poverty-stricken slums of Piraeus, but it is true. Gauci has depicted not only the suffering but also the richness of life in the face of death and despair. Gauci has to be commended for her depiction of this era in all its suffering and deprivation. I thought the historical backdrop to this story was superbly executed. Bravo Ms Gauci. Bravo, indeed.

Seraphina's Song by Kathryn Gauci is the kind of book that wraps around your soul and leaves an impression. It is a story that is as impressive as it is brilliant. If you love quality Historical Fiction, then this book should definitely be on your 'to-read' list!

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.

The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Pick up your copy of

Seraphina's Song

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Kathryn Gauci

Kathryn Gauci was born in Leicestershire, England, and studied textile design at Loughborough College of Art and later at Kidderminster College of Art and Design where she specialised in carpet design and technology. After graduating, Kathryn spent a year in Vienna, Austria before moving to Greece where she worked as a carpet designer in Athens for six years. There followed another brief period in New Zealand before eventually settling in Melbourne, Australia.

Before turning to writing full-time, Kathryn ran her own textile design studio in Melbourne for over fifteen years, work which she enjoyed tremendously as it allowed her the luxury of travelling worldwide, often taking her off the beaten track and exploring other cultures. The Embroiderer is her first novel; a culmination of those wonderful years of design and travel, and especially of those glorious years in her youth living and working in Greece – a place that she is proud to call her spiritual home.

Her second novel, Conspiracy of Lies, is set in France during WWII. It is based on the stories of real life agents in the service of the Special Operations Executive and The Resistance under Nazi occupied Europe. To put one’s life on the line for your country in the pursuit of freedom took immense courage and many never survived. Kathryn’s interest in WWII started when she lived in Vienna and has continued ever since. She is a regular visitor to France and has spent time in several of the areas in which this novel is set.

Connect with Kathryn: Website • Twitter • Goodreads.

#BookReview — Whirligig by Richard Buxton #HistoricalFiction #civilwar @RichardBuxton65

Whirligig

By Richard Buxton

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty.

Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that creeps ever closer.

The first novel from multi-award winning short-story writer Richard Buxton, Whirligig is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

"Bet you wish you'd stayed at home now, don't ya?"

This wasn't Owen "Shire" Stanton's war, but he had made a promise a long, long time ago, and if nothing else, he was a man of his word. 

Taylor Spenser-Ridgmont was handsome and charming. It was a good match. So Clara had packed her bags and followed her betrothed home to Comrie, Tennessee. But it was only after she married him that Taylor's true nature became apparent and Clara realised what a terrible, terrible mistake she had made. But alas, this was a mistake that could never be rectified. She was on her own, and no one could help her escape this dreadful marriage.

Shire knew what kind of man Taylor was before his childhood friend sailed across the sea to marry him. But who was he to question the choices of a Duke's daughter? Shire was only a school-teacher and a part-time farm labourer. He and Clara had no business being friends, let alone anything else.

However, a shocking discovery sees Shire set sail across the ocean to save Clara from the biggest mistake of her life. However, when he arrives in America, he finds a country on the brink of civil war. The only way Shire can navigate the South and reach his destination was to join the Union Army. Shire must reach Clara before it is too late, and if he has to fight every Confederacy soldier along the way, he will do so. But time is not his friend, and if the army does not get a move on, then it may be too late.

From the desolate graveyard that is holding so tightly to her secrets in Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, England to the horror of the Battle of Chickamauga, Whirligig by Richard Buxton is the mesmerising and wholly unforgettable story of one man's commitment to a promise that would take him on a journey through war-torn America.

Not since John Jakes fabulous North and South Trilogy has a story about the American Civil War captured my attention and left me breathless. Not only is Whirligig a wonderfully fresh take on the American Civil War, but it is also a story of courage, honour, friendship, and love.

From the opening sentence, I was enchanted. Buxton gives a masterful account of the lead up to the war and the war itself. Whirligig is a book that commands your attention, and it certainly deserves your admiration.

Buxton has lavishly evoked the land in which his story is set in. The canvas is a large one, from Victorian England to the war-torn South of the United States, and it is at all times luxuriantly detailed.

Buxton has captured the very essence of what life would have been like for a Unionist Soldier during the war. Within these pages, I found myself walking with soldiers, sharing their fear, their frustration, and in some cases, their utter boredom — for a soldier’s life is not just a single battle. The war and the Battle of Chickamauga, in particular, was wonderfully portrayed — a fitting monument one might say, to those who fought and died there. And through all of this is Shire's desire to reach Clara.

Buxton has a penned two highly appealing characters in Shire and Clara. Shire's devotion to his childhood friend is heartwarming and absorbing. Shire is a man who feels deeply and is compelled to act when he sees a grave injustice served to those he cares about. Shire risks everything, including his own life, to reach Clara. This devotion to a promise made Shire a truly unforgettable character.

Clara knows her place. She knows she cannot follow her heart and so Clara marries where she thinks she is most likely to find happiness. But when she reaches Tennessee and settles into life in Taylor's household, life is not quite what she dreamt it would be. This house hides some terrible secrets, and with time Clara learns these secrets and the role Taylor had in creating them, with dire consequences to herself.

Although Comrie is not a cotton-plantation there are still slaves, and slowly over a considerable time, Clara learns about these people who are forced to serve her, and she strikes a beautiful friendship with several of them. Through her actions, Clara also commands their loyalty, although not with a whip but with her heart. Clara is genuine in her respect for the slaves, and the feeling is eventually reciprocated. It was also fascinating to witness the effect the war had on the South and the fear of what the Unionist Army would do when they reached them. I thought this balance between the North and the South was very carefully drawn. 

Buxton shows his ability as a writer with the depiction of Taylor. Taylor is manipulative, cruel, and above everything else, a compulsive liar. He is the kind of antagonist that sends shivers down one's spine. As often is the case, Taylor is also a terrible coward who cares nothing about the lives he destroys as long as he gets what he wants, and in the case of this story, he wants to destroy all evidence of the truth. His single-minded determination to hunt Shire down and kill him reminded me very much of Elkanah Bent in North and South. He is a vile man, but he certainly drove this story forward.

The historical detailing in this book has to be commended. Not only does Buxton have an almost intimate knowledge of the history of this era in America, but he has also captured the mood of England as she watched the events unfold. Buxton is a true historian with a novelist’s heart. Kudos, Mr Buxton.

This book and this story was what Buxton was born to write. Whirligig is a fabulous addition to any bookshelf.

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.

The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Pick up your copy of

Whirligig

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Richard Buxton

Richard Buxton grew up in Wales but has lived in Sussex for the last thirty years. He is a 2015 graduate of the Creative Writing Masters programme at Chichester University. He studied in America during his twenties and tries to return there as often as he can for research and inspiration. His writing successes include winning the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story award. His US Civil War novel, Whirligig, released this spring, was shortlisted for the 2017 Rubery International Book Award.

Connect with Richard: Website  • Facebook • Twitter.