Description

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Miranda's parents, Asterius and Melina, run a tavern in Syracuse, a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily. They are immigrants from Crete, which they had to leave in a hurry, never to return. One of their customers is a blind man called Polyeuphemius, who is almost a member of the family, but they are wary of another customer, Olysseus, who traffics in ancient artefacts and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. One day, Miranda bumps into Antelmo, a schoolmate who is now a fisherman and has grown into a bit of a hunk. Antelmo invites her to join the League of Gorgons, an organization that endeavours to prevent Sicily's cultural heritage from being pillaged. This will lead her to cross the island with a mathematical treatise by Archimedes, dodging craters left behind by the combatants of the Second World War, to learn about her family's past, and to meet a great inventor who specializes in aircraft, Dae Dalus. The text is interspersed with stories that reintroduce the reader to Greek myths, and with characters, some of whom are not what they seem... Marilar Aleixandre was awarded the Spanish National Book Award for Fiction in 2022. She lectures in Environmental and Science Education at Santiago de Compostela University. Her works have received important literary prizes and featured in the White Ravens catalogue. She is also an accomplished translator. Her reinterpretation of the Medusa myth, Head of Medusa, is also available in English from Small Stations Press.