"The Clearing" is a historical novel set in Metsovo, Epirus, in the late 19th century, when this remote part of north-west Greece was still under Turkish rule. Life is hard in the mountain village where traditions have remained stubbornly unchanged down the centuries and passions are running high. Caught up in the whirlwind of political clashes and social contrasts, two young people struggle to find their way in the worlds they were born into: Iphigenia, daughter to Kolakis, the lord of the locality, and niece to Georgios Averoff, benefactor to the Greek nation, and Tegos, the son of a mule-driver whose horizons were curtailed from birth by poverty and prejudice.
The two protagonists struggle along long and painful paths in search of a Clearing in their lives—of some way beyond the dilemmas and conflicts, beyond pain and hatred, beyond their mountain-girt home.
Greek Christian Literature Society Fiction Award 2001
Short-listed for Diavazo Magazine’s First Novel Award 2001
