Our Lady of the Serpents

This is an excellent novel. Articulate, intelligent and uncontrived. The story revolves around the relationship between an old woman and her gardener, a middle aged man. The book is set in Greece on an unspecified island. The devoloping relationship between the two principal characters plays out around the garden, which has a mysterious and wild quality to it. One is always reminded, on a sub-level, of ancient Greek mythology; not the sterile, emasculated version so common in this culture. Below the surface of this book there is a wild and dark mythology, full of sexuality and danger. Petrie Harbouri reveals glimpses of this along with fragments of the old woman's past in a seemless way which creeps up on one unawares and fosters the desire to learn more. The author has sharp powers of observation and an abundant knowledge, ranging from psychology to flora and fauna. The style is exquisite - not a word too few, nor to many. The clarity of thought and expression is almost unnerving. It gave me the sensation that I was floating in the upper atmosphere with the ability to see everything on the Earth with %100 accuracy, even to the bottom of oceans. Another aspect to this many layered book is its compassion.The author seems to understand and empathise with the elderly - as real people with all their strengths, faults, joys and sadness. A quality generally lacking in American culture. If there is, as I believe, a company of individual voices, which have elevated human consciousness; then Petrie Harbouri's voice belongs among them. - An important book.