A novel set in the island of Ikaria in Greece, with a half-Greek Australian protagonist couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Most of us haven’t had a decent holiday for more than two years. Reading these sort of escapist books is the closest thing we’ve had to an airline ticket,” author Anne Freeman tells Neos Kosmos in an interview about her debut novel, Returning to Adelaide which received the 2021 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize and made her finalist for the 2021 Romance Writers of Australia Valerie Parv Award.
The story follows the life of Adelaide Jones, a wife and mother who, when her perfect suburban life begins to unravel, is forced on a journey of self-discovery to the remote island of Ikaria, where she reunites with the Greek friends from teenagehood.
In the story, the protagonist reflects on a trip to Greece that she took as a teenager, which is largely based on a trip that Freeman took with her mother in 1994, to visit her yiayia in Kiato. “Like Adelaide, I befriended the teenaged siblings that lived in the apartment upstairs and forged friendships that remain to this day,” explains Freeman.
She drew upon her extensive travels in the region over the years, but also her love and knowledge of Greek culture, including elements of strong friendships that give her novel a deeper dimension.
The Melbourne-based author started writing the manuscript when both her children were under 3 years old, the younger one still a babe in arms, and though it may seem a huge and laborious undertaking for a new mum, she tells us that the process energised her.
“Motherhood is a wonderful experience. But at the same time, it really breaks you apart. You sort of have to rebuild yourself as an individual. I think I started writing as a way to reconnect with who I was as a woman, as an individual. Because, in those early days, you’re so embedded in that role of mother. I needed that intellectual and that creative stimulation as well.”
And as Freeman reconnects to herself through the process of writing this book, so does the protagonist, and she hopes the women who will read the book will too.
“We have this sort of societal expectation that once women become mothers, they need nothing else. And it’s not true. Of course, it may be true for some, but in my experience, and that of my peers, it is not the case.”
A love letter to Greek heritage
Anne Freeman’s father is English, and her mother hails from Corinthia, from where she migrated from to Australia in 1967.
“They were one of many Greek families who made Australia home via the Patris. If that ship could speak the stories it would tell!” Freeman says.
“My father doesn’t have any family here in Australia, and so I’ve always really valued and enjoyed the Greek side of my family.”
Freeman explains that having biracial heritage has always made her feel like she has one foot in each camp. “So you sort of don’t really belong anywhere.
But at the same time, I really do value that Greek heritage, because I think it has a lot more shape, a lot more form. There’s no equivalent for me, on the English side, there’s no ceremony, it’s not so heavily ingrained with ritual and those sorts of beautiful practices. I remember my theia, who’s also my nona, giving me every year the Easter labada. She’d get the biggest, the most ornate with all the ribbons, and I just felt so incredibly special.”
Returning to Adelaide is her first novel, so Freeman is relishing every individual new reaction she gets from her readers.
“Every review says something different. A different element has spoken to each reader because each reader is unique. I believe a story takes place between the writer and the reader. A writer only provides half, and it’s through the reader that it comes to life.”
She says that some readers were all about the escapism, others could feel the Mediterranean sun on their skin. For a few, it was the depictions of early motherhood, the struggles and the joys, women supporting each other, and many revelled in the romance.
“It’s like it’s a different book for each person! And as the writer of that book, it’s just so amazing to see my work through someone else’s eyes. I mean, that’s miraculous. You can write a hundred books and have them in your bottom desk drawer, but that’s only half the journey.”
For more information visit www.annefreeman.com.au or follow the author on instagram @annefreemanwrites