The soon to be released novel by award-winning Victorian author Gregory Day, Archipelago of Souls, takes the experiences of an Australian soldier in wartime Crete as the starting point for a poignant exploration of love and loss in a morally devastated world.
Published by Macmillan next month, if the book’s publicity is anything to go by, it’s a remarkable addition to Australian writing on the subject; a topic traditionally limited to non-fiction.
In the aftermath of WWII, Australian soldier Wesley Cress, a hero of the resistance on Nazi-occupied Crete, seeks solace and comfort on windswept King Island, anchored in the middle of Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania.
Wesley carries in his heart the infernal story of the brutal 10-day battle for Crete, the disappearance of his brother in the desperate evacuation that brought its conclusion, and the hellish journey he was forced to take after he was left behind on the island.
Fast-forward a few years to another isle; the tiny antipodean outpost of King Island. Here is where the war-scarred Wesley comes to exorcise his Cretan demons.
Suffering what in later conflicts would be called post-traumatic stress disorder, he meets Leonie, the granddaughter of an American whaler with her own nightmares, and the private and public battles of their post-war worlds begin to fuse.
Helped by an unassuming local postmaster – a crusader for the rights of returned servicemen – Wesley and Leonie try to negotiate a future in which love and healing can prevail.
Day’s fascination with Crete started when he first visited the island as a university student.
“My eyes were opened in many ways in those days … not only to the sea-lit slopes and valleys of the classical world of Minoan and Homeric myth, but also to the more recent events – when Australians fought alongside the Cretans, Kiwis and British in WWII,” says the author.
“I knew back then that the idea of a relatively raw young Australian man being thrown into such a historically-layered, yet awful situation, was something I would write about.”
Living on the south west coast of Victoria, Day became obsessed with comparing not just the physical similarities of the rugged Cretan and Victorian coastlines but “the young myth-seeking culture of Australia with the ancient myth-bound society of Crete”.
“What happened back in 1941 when these two cultures intersected in such dramatic circumstances? I wondered. What happened on the inside?
“When Australians found themselves fighting a war in the birthplace of western myth, their reactions were varied but predominantly they were visceral, realistic and life-changing. That’s why they got on well with the Cretans, and it’s one of the reasons why post-war immigration to Australia from Greece has been so influential and successful.”
Gregory Day’s latest work is described as a novel which explores “the difficult realities of nationhood, war, morality and love … the creation of identity, the enigmas of memory and the power of the written word to heal the deepest wounds”.
I can’t wait to get my copy.
Archipelago of Souls is published in paperback on July 1. Price $32.99