Author(s): Maria Heckinger

Film

On a Greek island in 1952, 15-year-old Hariklea's life is changed in an instant Sent by her father to a doctor on the mainland, the girl discovers she is pregnant. Given the social taboos of the time, soon she is living on the streets of Patras, relying on the kindness of strangers to survive. She gives birth to her child in the most difficult of circumstances. Thirty years later, carrying a hand full of papers to translate, the orphaned child returns to Greece. Through sheer serendipity, the child finds her birth mother, a woman with many secrets. Now you're thinking that finding a birth parent is not so unusual, but what happens after their reunion makes this a story like no other, as it touches the fine line between blind luck and unexplained miracle. Book jacket.