The story begins on an August morning in 1902 in Neapolis, Laconia, and unfolds backwards, reaching all the way to the Orlov events and illuminating silenced figures, such as Konstantia, the daughter of the foremost klepth of the Morea, Captain Zacharias Barbitsiotis.
Set against the ever-stormy cape of Cabo Malias, which the Venetians called Cape of Saint Angel, Eleni Sarantiti composes a multifaceted mural that places four female figures at its center: Ruth, Pelagia, Angeliki, and Evgenia. Four women connected by blood ties as well as the memory of an unfulfilled love, a precious ivory necklace bought on the eve of the Revolution by the well-traveled Theodoros Marghetis from Monemvasia at a market in the distant Colombo.
Cabo of Saint Angel has countless stories to tell: battles, loves, shipwrecks, separations, losses. In the great human melting pot of the book, there is room for klepths and freedom fighters, admirable women who survive under adverse conditions, aristocrats, and simple laborers. With poetic writing and a direct voice, the author makes us participants in the secrets, passions, and heartaches of the legendary Cabo of Saint Angel.
“The justice of life, the demand of memory, the omnipresent past, pain and nostalgia as beauty and soul food are the reference points of the novel from where the heroes reach heart explosions, in acts of unspeakable bravery. Through captivating stories of people, we experience shocking acts of heroes, sometimes even forgotten or neglected for reasons of expediency. Cabo of Saint Angel has the power to lead you to the heart of incomprehensible events, both historical and social.” Dimitris Kapranos, I Kathimerini
“With the gift of natural language as breath, the well-known – unknown Cabo of Saint Angel came to life again.” Athena Papadaki, Eleftherotypia
“The elaborate amalgam of historical truth and legend, the fantastic and the real, combined with the realistic portrayal of the characters, highlights the unique historical and social core of the book.” Elizabeth Matthew, World Literature Today
