Shortly after finishing Stealing Freedom, by Sylvia Leontaritis, I got on an airplane. One of the movies available on the free wi-fi was Belfast, a nominee for Best Picture at the Academy Awards last month. As I watched it, I thought, “I feel like I just read this.” The two stories are very different in setting — they take place in opposite corners of Europe, one with a 9-year-old boy as the main character, the other with a 16-year-old girl. After a while, I realized what it was that resonated — both are love letters to childhood neighborhoods that turned violent. I suppose the point of this rambling opening paragraph is this: if you liked Belfast, you’ll probably like Stealing Freedom, out this month.
The book takes place in 1935 on the Greek island of Kalymnos, at that time occupied by Italy. It opened my eyes to some aspects of history I had not known about – this Greek island had been part of the Ottoman empire for 400 years until 1912 when it was taken by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War. At first, the Italians were considered liberators, but relations soured as it became evident they never intended to leave.
In Stealing Freedom, we get acquainted with Popi, a young woman who’s frustrated both by her beau, Dimitri and by the increasingly abusive behavior of the Italian soldiers who occupy the island. Dimitri seems to have a wandering eye, fooling around with an arrogant girl Popi can’t stand, Katina, even though everyone’s assumed for years that Dimitri would marry Popi. The Italians have closed down all of the island’s Greek-speaking schools and all but one of the churches in an effort to make the island Italian. The soldiers have also been burning down businesses and assaulting young women the same age as Popi. But the Greeks aren’t about to give up their culture or their religion to a bunch of fascists.
The book also weaves together the adventure of helping the Resistance with the pain of forbidden love and of the perils of judging your enemies too harshly. The structure of the book is kind of interesting in that the main character doesn’t waste any time getting involved in the Resistance — in the first chapter she jumps at the opportunity and starts recruiting friends to be in an intelligence-gathering ring.
While on her way back from a late-night meeting with her compatriots, she encounters two Italian soldiers, one evil and one kind, and the kind one then keeps her guessing for the rest of the book. The character development of Popi is interesting throughout the story, including after an abrupt setting change. No spoilers on that change, but it does take some getting used to — be sure to stick with it.
You may know Leontaritis as the blogger running Orthodoxmom.com, which covers religious education for children, among other non-fiction topics. It turns out she writes good religious fiction, too, including interesting themes of Orthodox faith and identity, especially as the narrator explains the complicated relationship with March 25, which is both Greek Independence Day and the Feast of the Annunciation.
Fans of historical fiction, clean romance, and religious fiction will all enjoy this book. All in all, a good read, and I recommend it heartily!
It’s available on Amazon here, and on Barnes and Noble here.
