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Daughters of the Labyrinth
This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared.
Ri is a successful international artist who has worked in London all her life. When her English husband dies she turns to her Greek roots on Crete, island of mass tourism and ancient myth, only to discover they are not what she thought. As Brexit looms in the UK, and Greece grapples with austerity and the refugee crisis, she finds under the surface of her home not only proud memories of resisting foreign occupation but a secret, darker history. As an artist, she has lived by seeing and observing. Now she discovers how much she has not seen, and finds within herself the ghost of someone she never even heard of. Unearthing her parents' stories transforms Ri's relationships to her family and country, her identity and her art.
Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family.
Ri is a successful international artist who has worked in London all her life. When her English husband dies she turns to her Greek roots on Crete, island of mass tourism and ancient myth, only to discover they are not what she thought. As Brexit looms in the UK, and Greece grapples with austerity and the refugee crisis, she finds under the surface of her home not only proud memories of resisting foreign occupation but a secret, darker history. As an artist, she has lived by seeing and observing. Now she discovers how much she has not seen, and finds within herself the ghost of someone she never even heard of. Unearthing her parents' stories transforms Ri's relationships to her family and country, her identity and her art.
Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2021
20 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Padel
55 books44 followersRuth is an English poet and writer. She has published poetry collections, novels, and books of non-fiction, including several on reading poetry. She has presented Radio 4′s Poetry Workshop, visiting poetry groups across the UK to discuss their poems.
Her awards include First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition, a Cholmondeley Award from The Society of Authors, an Arts Council of England Writers’ Award and a British Council Darwin Now Research Award for her novel Where the Serpent Lives.
Ruth lives in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Member of the Bombay Natural History Society, an Ambassador for New Networks for Nature, a Patron of 21st-Century Tiger and a Council Member of the Zoological Society of London.
Her awards include First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition, a Cholmondeley Award from The Society of Authors, an Arts Council of England Writers’ Award and a British Council Darwin Now Research Award for her novel Where the Serpent Lives.
Ruth lives in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Member of the Bombay Natural History Society, an Ambassador for New Networks for Nature, a Patron of 21st-Century Tiger and a Council Member of the Zoological Society of London.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 11, 2021
There are several daughters in these labyrinths.
Arianna (Ri) is a sixty-one-year-old artist and widow living in London. At the start of the book her long-time Indian friend, Nashita, is visiting and accompanying her to her latest art exhibition. Nashita, herself an artist, compliments her, but feels that somehow Ri is withholding something. They discuss the art of Cézanne and Amrita Sher-Gil, and agree that Ri should visit Nashita in India.
Group of Three Girls by Amrita Sher-Gil, 1935 (Wikipedia)
Ri has to cut her appearance at the opening of her exhibition short when she receives a telephone call from family in Crete informing her that her mother is seriously ill. She leaves for Crete at the earliest opportunity, worried about her mother but also happy to see family and return to her roots.
By chance she learns astonishing things about her parents and grandparents, and finds herself in a metaphorical labyrinth searching for answers to all her questions, information withheld by her parents until now. She learns history about the island that she wasn’t aware of, history about the German invasion and the fate of Jews at that time. There are many memories of what was and what was lost. The memories themselves are like dark labyrinths. The invader can be likened to the Minotaur.
During the course of her discoveries she has to come to terms with what she has learned, and who she is now and what and how she’ll paint in the future. There are other important issues that she has to think about before making life changing decisions; there is Brexit, and already she has had to listen to hate speech when she was still in London and was overheard talking to someone in Greek on her mobile. She is aware of financial crises, global warming, the refugee crisis, homelessness and as we leave Ri, Covid19 has become a global pandemic. This is a song sung as Crete goes into lockdown and there are no tourists:
”Who would expect in springtime
to see no doors open for a thirsty stranger?
Who would expect in springtime
to see no children pick flowers in the field?”
###
Extracts:
”We laugh, we love our brother Vasilis really, we chat on and I don’t notice those boys have stopped kicking their ball until I’m surrounded. ‘Speak English! You’re in fucking England!’ ‘Shut the fuck up!’ ‘Go back to your own country.’”
“‘They build labyrinths in ashrams today,’ says Nashita. ‘Walking a labyrinth is big business. It’s fashionable, man. The route to enlightenment. They say it promotes healing.’
‘Not with a Minotaur in it.’”
“We loved Cézanne too. But we wanted the opposite, we revelled in his uncertainty. We loved the way Cézanne mixed perspectives, painted from several points of view at once, spread out an apple so you saw its other side.”
“You have to have the dark. Otherwise it’d be chocolate-box Crete, tourist Crete. Cretan light is dry and very sharp. You’re as close to North Africa as Europe. Very black shadow. The contrast’s really violent. Isn’t India like that too?’”
“As a student, I used to see myself as Persephone, travelling between English dark and Cretan light. Even now, the journey still has the romance of the in-between. People lining up at Gate 25 are souls waiting to cross the Styx.”
“I suddenly remember how hope feels. Fruit on every branch.”
“One of Cézanne’s friends said the master always began a painting with shadow. He laid down a patch of shadow, overlapped it with another, then another, till all the shadows hinged to each other like screens. That’s what Mama has been doing for me. Connecting the dark bits to make a picture of her life.”
“I’ll have to learn to paint from a different self.”
“The light is growing stronger. So are the shadows, can’t have one without the other. This is where the new work has to come from. The labyrinth of your own backyard.”
###
Author:
Ruth Padel is Professor of Poetry at Kings College, London. She has published several volumes of poetry, as well as nonfiction and two novels. She has won several awards. Here is her Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Padel
and here is her website:
https://www.ruthpadel.com
###
Once again one thing leads to another. I am reading Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper, and I had only just finished reading about the abduction of a German general on Crete, when I found several references to this abduction in the novel. Fermor conceived the idea, and played a major role in its execution, but his name is not mentioned in the novel (merely a comment and not a criticism).
Arianna (Ri) is a sixty-one-year-old artist and widow living in London. At the start of the book her long-time Indian friend, Nashita, is visiting and accompanying her to her latest art exhibition. Nashita, herself an artist, compliments her, but feels that somehow Ri is withholding something. They discuss the art of Cézanne and Amrita Sher-Gil, and agree that Ri should visit Nashita in India.
Group of Three Girls by Amrita Sher-Gil, 1935 (Wikipedia)
Ri has to cut her appearance at the opening of her exhibition short when she receives a telephone call from family in Crete informing her that her mother is seriously ill. She leaves for Crete at the earliest opportunity, worried about her mother but also happy to see family and return to her roots.
By chance she learns astonishing things about her parents and grandparents, and finds herself in a metaphorical labyrinth searching for answers to all her questions, information withheld by her parents until now. She learns history about the island that she wasn’t aware of, history about the German invasion and the fate of Jews at that time. There are many memories of what was and what was lost. The memories themselves are like dark labyrinths. The invader can be likened to the Minotaur.
During the course of her discoveries she has to come to terms with what she has learned, and who she is now and what and how she’ll paint in the future. There are other important issues that she has to think about before making life changing decisions; there is Brexit, and already she has had to listen to hate speech when she was still in London and was overheard talking to someone in Greek on her mobile. She is aware of financial crises, global warming, the refugee crisis, homelessness and as we leave Ri, Covid19 has become a global pandemic. This is a song sung as Crete goes into lockdown and there are no tourists:
”Who would expect in springtime
to see no doors open for a thirsty stranger?
Who would expect in springtime
to see no children pick flowers in the field?”
###
Extracts:
”We laugh, we love our brother Vasilis really, we chat on and I don’t notice those boys have stopped kicking their ball until I’m surrounded. ‘Speak English! You’re in fucking England!’ ‘Shut the fuck up!’ ‘Go back to your own country.’”
“‘They build labyrinths in ashrams today,’ says Nashita. ‘Walking a labyrinth is big business. It’s fashionable, man. The route to enlightenment. They say it promotes healing.’
‘Not with a Minotaur in it.’”
“We loved Cézanne too. But we wanted the opposite, we revelled in his uncertainty. We loved the way Cézanne mixed perspectives, painted from several points of view at once, spread out an apple so you saw its other side.”
“You have to have the dark. Otherwise it’d be chocolate-box Crete, tourist Crete. Cretan light is dry and very sharp. You’re as close to North Africa as Europe. Very black shadow. The contrast’s really violent. Isn’t India like that too?’”
“As a student, I used to see myself as Persephone, travelling between English dark and Cretan light. Even now, the journey still has the romance of the in-between. People lining up at Gate 25 are souls waiting to cross the Styx.”
“I suddenly remember how hope feels. Fruit on every branch.”
“One of Cézanne’s friends said the master always began a painting with shadow. He laid down a patch of shadow, overlapped it with another, then another, till all the shadows hinged to each other like screens. That’s what Mama has been doing for me. Connecting the dark bits to make a picture of her life.”
“I’ll have to learn to paint from a different self.”
“The light is growing stronger. So are the shadows, can’t have one without the other. This is where the new work has to come from. The labyrinth of your own backyard.”
###
Author:
Ruth Padel is Professor of Poetry at Kings College, London. She has published several volumes of poetry, as well as nonfiction and two novels. She has won several awards. Here is her Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Padel
and here is her website:
https://www.ruthpadel.com
###
Once again one thing leads to another. I am reading Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper, and I had only just finished reading about the abduction of a German general on Crete, when I found several references to this abduction in the novel. Fermor conceived the idea, and played a major role in its execution, but his name is not mentioned in the novel (merely a comment and not a criticism).
October 29, 2022
DAUGHTERS OF THE LABYRINTH (2021) is a novel about the fate of the Jewish community of Crete during the Holocaust, loosely based on two true stories. Though the account is fictional, the author has mentioned that she has tried to tell the story of the last Cretan Jews as accurately as possible, based on newspaper archives and the accounts of local historians.
Arianna, the protagonist, is a successful artist who lives in London. She has been widowed recently and is trying to adjust to her new life after a long and happy marriage. When her elderly mother is hospitalized, she returns to Crete, her homeland, to spend some time with her family. While at her mother's bedside, she starts to unearth stories of the resistance to the German occupation in the 1940s and also a silenced, darker history involving her own parents.
Ruth Padel, a renowned British poet, evokes the lives of the last Cretan Jews, a community which had been fully integrated into the island’s society for many, many years. Until May 1944 the Germans had orders to cripple Jewish life. Life was extremely harsh for the Jewish community but they felt somewhat secure because there were no deportations, no murders, no particular violence targeted against them. They were not aware of the impending danger, they didn't know that the Jews of Salonica were being deported.
DAUGHTERS OF THE LABYRINTH is the poignant, unsettling story of the forgotten Cretan Jews and their tragic story. Padel is an excellent narrator who weaves a lyrical, subtle, wonderfully evocative story so skillfully. I felt that perhaps she tied every narrative strand too neatly, there were a few convenient coincidences which did not ring true, but otherwise it is a book I would heartily recommend.
Arianna, the protagonist, is a successful artist who lives in London. She has been widowed recently and is trying to adjust to her new life after a long and happy marriage. When her elderly mother is hospitalized, she returns to Crete, her homeland, to spend some time with her family. While at her mother's bedside, she starts to unearth stories of the resistance to the German occupation in the 1940s and also a silenced, darker history involving her own parents.
Ruth Padel, a renowned British poet, evokes the lives of the last Cretan Jews, a community which had been fully integrated into the island’s society for many, many years. Until May 1944 the Germans had orders to cripple Jewish life. Life was extremely harsh for the Jewish community but they felt somewhat secure because there were no deportations, no murders, no particular violence targeted against them. They were not aware of the impending danger, they didn't know that the Jews of Salonica were being deported.
DAUGHTERS OF THE LABYRINTH is the poignant, unsettling story of the forgotten Cretan Jews and their tragic story. Padel is an excellent narrator who weaves a lyrical, subtle, wonderfully evocative story so skillfully. I felt that perhaps she tied every narrative strand too neatly, there were a few convenient coincidences which did not ring true, but otherwise it is a book I would heartily recommend.
April 23, 2022
This is one of the best books I have read. I couldn’t put it down and felt quite bereft when I finished it. Beautifully written and telling an incredible story. My own very close long-term personal relationship with Crete made this even more of a poignant read, and I was able to identify with so much of the vivid description of the culture, way of life and people of Crete.
November 3, 2024
Η Αγγλίδα συγγραφέας Ρουθ Παντέλ γράφει ένα εξαιρετικό μυθιστόρημα για τους Εβραίους της Κρήτης και την τύχη που τους επιφύλαξε η ναζιστική θηριωδία στο νησί (όπως και σ' όλη την Ευρώπη) με κατάληξη τη βύθιση του Ταναΐς, του πλοίου που θα τους κατηύθυνε στα στρατόπεδα εξόντωσης. Γνώστρια της ελληνικής γλώσσας και λάτρισσα της Κρήτης, η Παντέλ επινοεί χαρακτήρες, πλέκει ιστορίες βασισμένες σε πραγματικά γεγονότα και πρόσωπα. Η ιστορία εκτυλίσσεται στα Χανιά, από την περιοχή που ήταν η Εβραϊκή συνοικία, τα Εβρέικα, γύρω από την παλιά πόλη και τη Νέα Χώρα μέχρι την Αγιά με τη γραφική λίμνη αλλά και το κολαστήριτα βουνά που πολεμούσαν οι ανταρτες. Περιγράφει τόπους, έθιμα και παραδόσεις Εβραίων και Χριστιανών χανιωτών και δείχνει πόσο και η ίδια γνωρίζει, εκτιμά και αναζητά τις ρίζες των Εβραίων στην πόλη των Χανίων, τα πολιτικά πράγματα, τη θέση των Άγγλων στη διάρκεια του πολέμου, την ιστορία της Κρήτης και τους ανθρώπους της. Αξίζει να διαβαστεί. Και βέβαια, διαβάζοντας κάθε σελίδα του βιβλίου, οι σκέψεις έρχονται στο σήμερα, στη σημερινή στάση του κράτους του Ισραήλ απέναντι στους Παλαιστίνιους, πριν λίγα χρόνια στη Τζενίν, τώρα σ' ολόκληρη την περιοχή της Γάζας, επιχειρούν εξόντωση, γενοκτονία χωρίς σταματημό και χωρίς ουσιαστική φωνή αντίδρασης από τους "μεγάλους" του υπόλοιπου κόσμου.
Read
May 6, 2022There is a plethora of Holocaust books, some considered good, some considered tasteless, others criticised, lambasted and suggestive of too much fiction thus undermining the horror of the time. While reviewers may be subjective, their own or their family history may well inform their views, in the end the opinion rests with the reader; how they assimilate and use the information.
In terms of fiction novelists may embroider their stories to make facts palatable, but the blend of fact, its accuracy and the extensive research required to marry it with fiction should never underplay reality. What is apparent, now that Holocaust survivors are passing on, is that there is a younger generation seeking to find and tell these stories. We know that many survivors could not speak about their experiences and their stories so often died with them. There is a curiosity and passion that this younger generation display in wanting to honour those who survived, thus ensuring that the world will not forget.
Reading Holocaust novels is to read the pain etched on the pages, particularly if there is a personal connection. So please forgive me if I try to take a pragmatic view, a neutral stance on your reading choices. In keeping the memory alive, we are reminding the public of a horror that should NEVER happen again. Sadly war and genocide are a fact of life – it is happening as we speak; we can never deny this. Books on the subject form the platform for knowledge; can perhaps be the change, but more than anything they are a legacy for the future.
Ruth Padel is a British poet and author and her writing has a rhythm that reflects this. Evocative, haunting and echoing lines paint a picture of buried secrets on Crete, an island full of its own myths and legends. ‘Daughters of the Labyrinth’ is set in the present but it explores the depth of buried memories, of stories never told, loss and denial. This is a story of the Holocaust that is little known and Sixty-something international artist Ri was born in Crete, brought up as a Christian but left for London in her 20s. Sponsored by the family friend Mr Michael she studied art and has made a successful career, something her Cretan mother Sophia seems always to resent. After the tragic death of her Jewish husband David, the news her mother is very ill draws her back to the island. It is her father who starts telling Ri her mother Sophia’s real story, one that saw her hidden throughout the war and her community driven from Crete. Coming to grips with this answers many questions and confirms instincts but brings with it confusion and finally peace. Unfurling the story is a walk through life’s labyrinth and Padel’s writing evokes the many moods and colours of this journey. Padel asks the question: How well do we know our own family…something we may well ask ourselves. A rich, satisfying and thoughtful novel.
In terms of fiction novelists may embroider their stories to make facts palatable, but the blend of fact, its accuracy and the extensive research required to marry it with fiction should never underplay reality. What is apparent, now that Holocaust survivors are passing on, is that there is a younger generation seeking to find and tell these stories. We know that many survivors could not speak about their experiences and their stories so often died with them. There is a curiosity and passion that this younger generation display in wanting to honour those who survived, thus ensuring that the world will not forget.
Reading Holocaust novels is to read the pain etched on the pages, particularly if there is a personal connection. So please forgive me if I try to take a pragmatic view, a neutral stance on your reading choices. In keeping the memory alive, we are reminding the public of a horror that should NEVER happen again. Sadly war and genocide are a fact of life – it is happening as we speak; we can never deny this. Books on the subject form the platform for knowledge; can perhaps be the change, but more than anything they are a legacy for the future.
Ruth Padel is a British poet and author and her writing has a rhythm that reflects this. Evocative, haunting and echoing lines paint a picture of buried secrets on Crete, an island full of its own myths and legends. ‘Daughters of the Labyrinth’ is set in the present but it explores the depth of buried memories, of stories never told, loss and denial. This is a story of the Holocaust that is little known and Sixty-something international artist Ri was born in Crete, brought up as a Christian but left for London in her 20s. Sponsored by the family friend Mr Michael she studied art and has made a successful career, something her Cretan mother Sophia seems always to resent. After the tragic death of her Jewish husband David, the news her mother is very ill draws her back to the island. It is her father who starts telling Ri her mother Sophia’s real story, one that saw her hidden throughout the war and her community driven from Crete. Coming to grips with this answers many questions and confirms instincts but brings with it confusion and finally peace. Unfurling the story is a walk through life’s labyrinth and Padel’s writing evokes the many moods and colours of this journey. Padel asks the question: How well do we know our own family…something we may well ask ourselves. A rich, satisfying and thoughtful novel.
November 9, 2023
One of Cézanne’s friends said the master always began a painting with shadow. He laid down a patch of shadow, overlapped it with another, then another, till all the shadows hinged to each other like screens. That’s what Mama has been doing for me. Connecting the dark bits to make a picture of her life. [loc 2898]
Daughters of the Labyrinth is the story of Ri Gold, a British artist in her sixties. Ri (short for Arianna) was born in Crete and has recently been widowed: her husband was Jewish. She's finding London, in the run-up to Brexit, increasingly unwelcoming, and when her friend Nashita visits from Mumbai for Ri's gallery opening, she points out that there's something 'withheld' in Ri's work. But then Ri's mother is admitted to hospital in Crete, and Ri flies home to see her -- and is shocked when her Catholic mother, half-conscious, begs her 'say kaddish for me'. But there are no Jews in Crete ...
Ri's mother Sophia (nee Sara) was Jewish, and during the Second World War, when the Germans invaded and the Jews were driven out of Chania -- one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world -- she fled to the mountains, helped by Andonis, a Cretan boy who was falling in love with her. Andonis was also active, as a teenager, in the Cretan resistance, and worked with an English archaeologist who later sponsored Ri's education, as well as her brothers' livelihoods.
Ri's growing understanding of her family's history is beautifully told: her painterly eye, and especially her observations about light and shadow ('every ripple has a grin of dark') add an intriguing layer to the story. Her anger at her parents for their silence transmutes into acceptance and even pleasure at her newfound heritage, and even in the final pages, when the spectre of Covid ('koronia') looms, there's a sense of hope and inspiration. The stories of Andonis and Sara, full of long-held secrets, are grimmer and more poignant: but they survived the war, and became the loving parents of Ri and her brothers.
I read this novel about Crete whilst holidaying there: I hadn't expected to be so moved by it, and it offers a perspective on Cretan life not readily accessible to the tourist. It did make me look afresh at everything around me: at the shadows, and at the light.
The author's afterword reveals the historical inspiration for the novel: it's based on real events during the war, and Padel draws on the work of modern Jews rededicating the ancient synagogue in Chania. I do wonder if her 1940s character Tinu, formerly a Turkish slave -- the Turks only left Crete in 1900 and he's in his sixties when Sara meets him -- is also based on a real person...
February 1, 2022
Ruth Padel's novel has gripped me since l started it a few days ago. I finished it this morning.
Widowed artist Ri aged 62 is about to hold an exhibition of her paintings in London when she hears that her aged mother, Sophia, in Crete has had a "heart event". Ri flies home and whilst visiting her mother in hospital, the truth about her family's past starts to unfold.
"Daughters of the Labyrinth" is a beautifully told, complexly interwoven story about family, forbidden love, family secrets and the withholding of information that is key to authentic identity- and what that does to you. The discovery of hidden Jewishness in Ri's family is central and the narrative segues seamlessly between the present day and the real history of Holocaust Crete. The Jewish community which had existed there long before the time of Christ was annihilated.
I was not aware that there had been anti Semitism on Crete: it was there, subtly, all the time. I don't know why it shocked me, to read about it in this book -but it did.
Padel draws pictures with her words: the smells and colours, the light and dark shadows that are Crete, seen through Ri- the- artist's eyes. Chania's Old Town is "shades of stone, butterscotch, ginger and saffron. Descriptions like this make page a joy to read despite the heartbreak that rivers through the narrative.
My family history and half Jewish identity was hidden too. So when Ri says " You can't deny your past, but what if you never knew it? I'm Jewish but l don't know how to be. I am a self in shadow, dark to itself. A self l don't understand." She talks of lost identity as a "lost treasure".
Yes, l know.... me too, me too.
So you'll understand when l say my reading of Daughters of the Labyrinth was accompanied by sodden tissues and silent tears. I know l am going to read it again and again and again
Widowed artist Ri aged 62 is about to hold an exhibition of her paintings in London when she hears that her aged mother, Sophia, in Crete has had a "heart event". Ri flies home and whilst visiting her mother in hospital, the truth about her family's past starts to unfold.
"Daughters of the Labyrinth" is a beautifully told, complexly interwoven story about family, forbidden love, family secrets and the withholding of information that is key to authentic identity- and what that does to you. The discovery of hidden Jewishness in Ri's family is central and the narrative segues seamlessly between the present day and the real history of Holocaust Crete. The Jewish community which had existed there long before the time of Christ was annihilated.
I was not aware that there had been anti Semitism on Crete: it was there, subtly, all the time. I don't know why it shocked me, to read about it in this book -but it did.
Padel draws pictures with her words: the smells and colours, the light and dark shadows that are Crete, seen through Ri- the- artist's eyes. Chania's Old Town is "shades of stone, butterscotch, ginger and saffron. Descriptions like this make page a joy to read despite the heartbreak that rivers through the narrative.
My family history and half Jewish identity was hidden too. So when Ri says " You can't deny your past, but what if you never knew it? I'm Jewish but l don't know how to be. I am a self in shadow, dark to itself. A self l don't understand." She talks of lost identity as a "lost treasure".
Yes, l know.... me too, me too.
So you'll understand when l say my reading of Daughters of the Labyrinth was accompanied by sodden tissues and silent tears. I know l am going to read it again and again and again
July 22, 2022
Daughters of the labyrinth is very slow to get going, to the point of dull. Fortunately I was away on a remote island with only one book to read so I had to keep going so I reached the second part. This was at about the time the mother is in danger.
The book raised questions about whether it is better to leave sleeping dogs lie. I wasn't totally convinced by the protagonist digging into her parents' past in order to satisfy her curiosity ( the grandaughter was even more angry that one side of her cultural background had been kept from her).
I was also struck by a subtle strand of anti-Christianity until a more inclusive ending.
I feel that the first-person narrator set-up didn't quite work either as there was far too much detail which she couldn't have known about. I didn't warm to Ri - she came over as priviledged and entitled, her daughter likewise ( despite their generosity) they wanted things to be on their terms. There were some freestyle passages which lacked things like capital letters which didn't really add anything.
So, there were several deficiencies in Daughters of the Labyrinth. To be more positive, the Cretan setting was attractive, the history of the German occupation revealing and adding something to one's knowledge from Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I liked thinking about the moral questions posed about , as I said, family background and religion.
I quite liked the positive response to the coronavirus and the family's acceptance of a quieter life.
March 19, 2023
I must admit that prior to reading this novel I had never really been aware of the fate of the Jewish community in Greece - and specifically in this book in Crete.
In this novel, a daughter seeks to uncover the truth about her parents' past in Crete. As she unearths their history, we learn with her about the impact of the German occupation in Crete. The story is loosely based on two true stories and of course the history underlying the book is all too true.
Ri now lives in London, but her parents are still in Crete. Ri has built a successful career as an artist, but there is a scene where she feels something is missing from her paintings. By returning to Crete and discovering something of her parents' history, she also discovers something of herself. And it raises questions about painful memories and whether it is more painful to lock them away or to remember and grieve.
The novel follows two timelines - the present and the time of the occupation, with parts of the war-time sections told by each of Ri's parents. I found the writing flowed in a beautiful way. There are many such simple, poignant scenes. As the bombs fall over Chania, the family take their dishes out of the cupboard and wrap them in cloth and bake the daily bread. The world was being ripped apart, but people are so resilient they keep loving and protecting their own and stepping forward each day as best they can.
This is a beautiful book. Full of the light of Crete and the hope of building a better future.
In this novel, a daughter seeks to uncover the truth about her parents' past in Crete. As she unearths their history, we learn with her about the impact of the German occupation in Crete. The story is loosely based on two true stories and of course the history underlying the book is all too true.
Ri now lives in London, but her parents are still in Crete. Ri has built a successful career as an artist, but there is a scene where she feels something is missing from her paintings. By returning to Crete and discovering something of her parents' history, she also discovers something of herself. And it raises questions about painful memories and whether it is more painful to lock them away or to remember and grieve.
The novel follows two timelines - the present and the time of the occupation, with parts of the war-time sections told by each of Ri's parents. I found the writing flowed in a beautiful way. There are many such simple, poignant scenes. As the bombs fall over Chania, the family take their dishes out of the cupboard and wrap them in cloth and bake the daily bread. The world was being ripped apart, but people are so resilient they keep loving and protecting their own and stepping forward each day as best they can.
This is a beautiful book. Full of the light of Crete and the hope of building a better future.
May 29, 2023
3.5
What would you do if, at 62, you learned that your parents weren't who you thought they were?
Ruth Padel examines issues of identity and memory through family history in Daughters of the Labyrinth. Ri, a successful London-based artist, finds her world turned upside down when she returns to her native Crete to visit her seriously ill mother, Sophia, who asks her to recite Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer for her. Sophia raised Ri and her two brothers in a traditional Greek Orthodox manner, and she had no inkling that her mother was Jewish.
Sophia's unintentional admission opens up Ri's parent's story and the history of the small Jewish community (population 325 before WW II) of Chania, Crete. The novel weaves back and forth between her parent's tale and Ri's reflections on identity, loss, and guilt as she and her parents come to terms with the past.
I liked the book, especially the segments that dealt with history and self-reflection. However, plotwise, I felt that Padel tied up several loose ends in the story in a manner that was almost too pat, too coincidental, and, as a result, came off as contrived. Unfortunately, these minor flaws detracted from what was otherwise an excellent book.
What would you do if, at 62, you learned that your parents weren't who you thought they were?
Ruth Padel examines issues of identity and memory through family history in Daughters of the Labyrinth. Ri, a successful London-based artist, finds her world turned upside down when she returns to her native Crete to visit her seriously ill mother, Sophia, who asks her to recite Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer for her. Sophia raised Ri and her two brothers in a traditional Greek Orthodox manner, and she had no inkling that her mother was Jewish.
Sophia's unintentional admission opens up Ri's parent's story and the history of the small Jewish community (population 325 before WW II) of Chania, Crete. The novel weaves back and forth between her parent's tale and Ri's reflections on identity, loss, and guilt as she and her parents come to terms with the past.
I liked the book, especially the segments that dealt with history and self-reflection. However, plotwise, I felt that Padel tied up several loose ends in the story in a manner that was almost too pat, too coincidental, and, as a result, came off as contrived. Unfortunately, these minor flaws detracted from what was otherwise an excellent book.
February 22, 2025
I didn’t enjoy it and I will try and explain why. The theme of the book - the Jewish community in Crete - is a fascinating one and its experience in WW2 is tragic. But overall I didn’t care about the characters. Perhaps the author was trying to include too many themes - the late revelation of the second sister Elvira was irritating and not moving. The invariable call to the Cretan Jewish mother’s hospital bed on the eve of the narrator’s art show in London was clichéd. The discovery of the disabled child’s sketchbook up the tree - too convenient. Too much gratuitous description- take a leaf out of Hemingway’s book and write sparely. And at the end the invariable link to Covid. Disappointing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2022
Quite honestly, I struggled with this book initially. I didn’t enjoy the style of writing and I almost abandoned it. However, the subject matter is really interesting so I persevered and I am so pleased as by halfway through I really got into it and absolutely loved it. It could’ve been my own state of mind that interfered initially. It’s a really worthwhile read – interesting subject matter re Crete during WWII and beautifully written.
November 10, 2025
I read this beautiful but sad engaging family tale whilst on holiday in Crete which really made the trip special. It follows Ri , her young adult daughter Katerina, her mother Sophia & father Andonis & her brothers - both today and in flashbacks to the war time of 1939-1946. I knew little about the tragedy of the Jewish people in Crete who were basically wiped from history. The story telling was gentle and well paced & I was just an engaged in the present day as in the past.
November 22, 2025
Yet another dnf. I felt there was a germ of an interesting story about the treatment of the Jews in Crete during WW2. However you had to follow the narrator through art galleries in London, hospitals in Crete etc when all I was interested in was the 1941 story. Could have been cut to a third of the size imo.
November 20, 2025
I wanted to read this book because of the setting initially. Then discovered the tragic story of the ancient Jewish community in Crete during the Holocaust. Actual history interwoven with story of daughter discovering hidden family history
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July 29, 2021Review to come for Shiny New Books.
December 13, 2021
Loved this book about the Jewish population on Crete during ww2 and life of one survivor including her life as a grandmother,
August 3, 2023
interesting insight into Cretan life in the WW2 especially for jews. A bit slow 3/4 through. Family secrets and their affects.
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February 19, 2024Historical novel about an artist from Crete, discovering details of family history that were kept from her while growing up.
April 1, 2024
A nicely-written tale of a (deliberately) forgotten identity and ancestry, and its repercussions in that family. A bit melodramatic at times, it is well-written and fascinating overall.
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