Ruth Padel

From the author of the bestselling Darwin: A Life in Poems, Ruth Padel's new collection follows in the footsteps of one of the world's greatest composers, Beethoven, and investigates what his life and music might mean to us todayTwo hundred and fifty years since Beethoven was born, Ruth Padel goes on a personal search for him, retracing his steps through war-torn Europe of the early nineteenth century, delving into his music, letters, diaries and the conversation books he used when deaf, to uncover the man behind the legend. Her quest, exploring the life of one of the most creative artists who ever lived, turns more personal than she expects, taking her into the sources of her own creativity and musicality. From a deeply musical family herself, Padel's parents met through music, and she grew up playing chamber music on viola - Beethoven's instrument as a child. Her father's grandfather, a concert pianist born on the German-Danish border, studied in Leipzig with a friend of Beethoven before immigrating to the UK. The poems in this illuminating biography in verse conjure not only Beethoven's life and personality, but her own music-making and love both of the European music-making tradition to which her father's family belongs, and to the continent itself Europe.

'An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling' Sunday Times'A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story' Irish Times, Best Books 2021----------This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared. Broken by the death of her husband, Ri, a successful international artist living in London, returns to her ancestral home of Crete. The Greek island is known for its ancient myth and mass tourism, but when Ri returns she finds a secret, darker history. As the home she left deals with a looming Brexit, and the home she rediscovered grapples with a refugee crisis, Ri confronts her changing identity. Unearthing stories from her family's past leaves a permanent mark on her understanding of herself, her relationship to her country, 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. ----------'Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter's passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel's brings a poet's eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy' Colm Toibin

'Making is our defence against the dark...'Through images of conflict and craftsmanship, Ruth Padel's powerful new poems address the Middle East, tracing a quest for harmony in the midst of destruction. An oud, the central instrument of Middle Eastern music , is made and broken. An ancient synagogue survives attacks, a Palestinian boy in a West Bank refugee camp learns capoeira, and a guide shows us Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during a siege. At the heart of the book are Christ's last words from the Cross. Uniting this moving collection is the common ground shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam: a vision of human life as pilgrimage and struggle but also as music and making. With care and empathy, Ruth Padel suggests how rifts in the Holy Land speak to conflict in our own hearts. 'We identify. Some chasm / through the centre must be in and of us all.'

Οι κόρες του λαβύρινθου μυθιστόρημα λυρικό, ερεθιστικό και υποβλητικό, εξερευνά τη δύναμη της θαμμένης μνήμης και την ισχύ του παρελθόντος πάνω στο παρόν. Ήταν στη shortlist για το βραβείο Runciman 2022. Μήπως όλοι ζούσαν με κάποια κρυφή απώλεια μέσα τους; Σαν να άκουσε τη φωνή του πατέρα, «Έβαψαν με αίμα τις πόρτες για να τους προσπεράσει ο Άγγελος του Θανάτου και είδε την πόρτα του δικού της σπιτιού, κι όλων των εβραϊκών σπιτιών στην Κονδυλάκη, να χαίνει ορθάνοιχτη και μαύρη, τα έπιπλα σκορπισμένα στο δρόμο, κι όλες τις άλλες πόρτες κλειστές». «Δεν μπορείς να αρνηθείς το παρελθόν σου, τι γίνεται όμως αν δεν το έμαθες ποτέ;» To ερώτημα αποκαλύπτει την υπαρξιακή αγωνία της ελληνοβρετανίδας ζωγράφου που επιστρέφει στην Κρήτη και αναγκάζεται σε ένα ταξίδι αυτογνωσίας προκειμένου να φωτίσει τις οικογενειακές της ρίζες. Σιγά σιγά έρχεται στην επιφάνεια το αποσιωπημένο οικογενειακό αλλά και συλλογικό παρελθόν που αφορά την βίαιη εκδίωξη των Εβραίων από τα Χανιά στον Β’ Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο. Υπό το πρίσμα του οικογενειακού αυτού δράματος η ηρωίδα αντιλαμβάνεται διαφορετικά τις προκλήσεις του παρόντος, είτε πρόκειται για τις οδυνηρές συνέπειες του Μπρέξιτ, την ευρύτερη οικονομική και προσφυγική κρίση που πλήττει την Ελλάδα και την επερχόμενη πανδημία του κορωνοϊού.