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'What happens when you take your 85-year-old mother to live with you on a Greek island? A strikingly original, funny, and forensic examination of love and finding home from the author of From Where I Fell
'In life, as in myth, women are the ones who are supposed to stay home like Penelope, weaving at their looms, rather than leaving home like Odysseus. Meet eighty-five-year-old Barbara and her sixty-two-year-old writer daughter Susan, who asked her mother—on a whim—if she wanted to accompany her to live on the Greek island of Kythera.
'What follows is a moving unravelling of the mother–daughter relationship told in poetic, irresistible prose.
'Aphrodite's Breath is a strikingly original, funny and forensic examination of love and finding home, amid the stories of the people, olives and wonders of the birthplace of Aphrodite.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
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Greek Australian Narratives to Enrich Your Summer Reading
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , December 2023;'From love stories to untold histories, poetry to art: explore the vibrant tapestry of Greek Australian voices many of them featured in the recent Greek Community of Melbourne’s Book Fair'
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To Kythera : The Difficult Art of Running Away
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 454 2023; (p. 23)
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography''Who hasn’t longed to run away?’ asks Susan Johnson at the beginning of this memoir-cum-travel book about her time on the Greek island of Kythera. It is a question that invites a show of hands. Fewer people, however, might be inclined to bring their mothers with them.'(Introduction)
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Susan Johnson Aphrodite’s Breath : A Mother and Daughter’s Greek Island Adventure
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 April - 5 May 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography -
Eros, Beauty and Friction: What Happened When Susan Johnson Took Her 85-year-old Mother to Live on a Greek Island
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 6 April 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography'Have you ever dreamed of fleeing your current life and spending weeks or months or even a year living on an island in the Mediterranean? This is what Susan Johnson longed for and did, taking her mother with her to the Greek island of Kythera. Reading Johnson’s new memoir Aphrodite’s Breath while taking myself off for a month of writing near Naples was my second experience of living in a synchronicity of sorts with Johnson.' (Introduction)
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Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson Review – A Revealing Memoir about Mothers and Daughters
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 April 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography 'A trip to Kythera for the Australian author and her mother results in this unsparing and intimate look at their intense and often unhappy dynamic'
-
Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson Review – A Revealing Memoir about Mothers and Daughters
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 April 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography 'A trip to Kythera for the Australian author and her mother results in this unsparing and intimate look at their intense and often unhappy dynamic' -
Eros, Beauty and Friction: What Happened When Susan Johnson Took Her 85-year-old Mother to Live on a Greek Island
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 6 April 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography'Have you ever dreamed of fleeing your current life and spending weeks or months or even a year living on an island in the Mediterranean? This is what Susan Johnson longed for and did, taking her mother with her to the Greek island of Kythera. Reading Johnson’s new memoir Aphrodite’s Breath while taking myself off for a month of writing near Naples was my second experience of living in a synchronicity of sorts with Johnson.' (Introduction)
-
Susan Johnson Aphrodite’s Breath : A Mother and Daughter’s Greek Island Adventure
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 April - 5 May 2023;
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography -
To Kythera : The Difficult Art of Running Away
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 454 2023; (p. 23)
— Review of Aphrodite's Breath : A Memoir 2023 single work autobiography''Who hasn’t longed to run away?’ asks Susan Johnson at the beginning of this memoir-cum-travel book about her time on the Greek island of Kythera. It is a question that invites a show of hands. Fewer people, however, might be inclined to bring their mothers with them.'(Introduction)
-
Greek Australian Narratives to Enrich Your Summer Reading
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , December 2023;'From love stories to untold histories, poetry to art: explore the vibrant tapestry of Greek Australian voices many of them featured in the recent Greek Community of Melbourne’s Book Fair'
Awards
- 2024 longlisted APA Book Design Awards — Best Designed Non Fiction Book
- 2023 longlisted Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature
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Kythera,
Greek islands,
cGreece,cWestern Europe, Europe,
