AustLit

'It is 1941 and Vic Stockton has missed the evacuation from Crete. Behind him lie the bodies of his dead comrades. Ahead lie days hiding from the Germans and a search for safety. Hungry and exhausted, he eventually stumbles upon a monastery whose abbot offers him shelter in an abandoned hut. As he waits and recovers his strength, supplies are brought to him by Kalliope Venakis - a young woman with the beauty and spirit of Crete in her bones, who yet longs for something more than the confining traditions of her village. That same yearning has already compelled her teenage sweetheart, Andreas, to leave for Australia before the outbreak of war, to prepare a new and better life for them together. But in the crucible of war, when all is tested and everything is at stake, bonds can be formed that resonate down a lifetime. As Vic and Kalliope pursue their postwar lives, it becomes clear that what is in the heart cannot always be expressed. Hope may stubbornly survive in the most unlikely places and flourish in the most unexpected of ways...' (Publisher's blurb)