Monodromos

From the award-winning and bestselling author of Bear, an atmospheric novel set in the Mediterranean where it is discovered that she who travels alone does not necessarily travel best.

Originally published in 1973, Monodromos is one of Marian Engel's most accomplished novels -- intensely readable, sensitive, and assured. Its story concerns Audrey Moore, a thirty-six-year-old woman who travels to Cyprus, the island once sacred to Aphrodite. Staying with her estranged husband, a has-been concert pianist, Audrey is troubled by memories of her past as she attempts to fathom the rich cultural confusion of a place that has changed hands a hundred times since Cleopatra presented it to Anthony. Her deepening involvement with island life, with a lover and a circle of expatriates, artists, and doubtful acquaintances, provide many insights, but she also has a sense that this place, for her, is a one-way street -- monodromos in Greek.