​​Beloved international bestseller Victoria Hislop explores the turbulence of the post-war era in Greece in her unforgettable and riveting new novel, The Wine-Dark Sea. 

​

Greece, 1946. In the power vacuum remaining after the Second World War, a brutal civil war erupts between rival left- and right-wing factions. As the conflict spirals, villages are turned into battlefields and ordinary women and children are pulled into the fray. 

​

When the government soldiers come to Kalopetra, Fotini is nursing her newborn son. She urges her daughter, Ileana, to hide with the older children as she and the other women are herded into trucks. Weeks later, soldiers return for the children … but they are not to be reunited with their mothers. A wholly different fate awaits them. 

​

Transported to a prison on the island of Chios, Fotini befriends a fellow mother, Markella, and her son Nikos. And when, after months of imprisonment, Fotini and Markella find themselves separated from one another – and from Nikos – Fotini vows to hunt not only for Ileana, but also Nikos, whatever it takes.

 

 ‘The post-war period in Greece has many untold stories, buried through shame and a desire to forget. Research took me not just to obscure corners of Greece itself, but also outside it, to Hungary and the US. I continue to learn so much about Greece, in particular the lesser-known parts of its history, which are a source of great inspiration. The hidden stories of this country, that has made me its own, continue to fascinate me and provide rich material for fiction.’ Victoria Hislop