The Clover House

March 25, 2013
First generation Greek-American Callie Notaris Brown has little connection to the homeland her mother fled. But an unexpected inheritance from her Uncle Nestor draws Callie back to Greece for the first time since childhood. Leaving her fiancée behind, she reconnects with relatives and searches for her once wealthy family's lost farm. Soon Callie is drawn into the local Carnival celebration and away from broiling family turmoil. Alongside revelers, Callie journeys into the countryside to find the family farm in spite of a local cousin who mocks her obsession with a past that cannot be traced. Prodded along by cassettes, videos, and pictures found in Uncle Nestor's house, Callie discovers not only the key to the family's wartime misfortunes, but also the source of her mother's complicated ties to Greece. Power does little to freshen this well-worn tale of an immigrant seeking closure in their ancestral homeland. While the family has a compelling legacy, Callie's present-day actionsâan unconvincing will-she-or-won't she marriage plotâdiminish that story's power. This slow-to-start, seemingly autobiographical novel never opens up enough to transcend the familiarity of its foundation. Agent: Kent D. Wolf, Global Literary Management.

February 1, 2013
Happily ensconced in Boston with her fiance, Jonah, Callie's only real trouble is her hesitancy about marrying him. That is, until her cousin Aliki phones from Greece to tell her that her beloved Uncle Nestor has died, and the funeral is in two days. So why didn't her mother tell her sooner? Power's debut novel traces Callie's trip to Greece, where she must not only sort through her uncle's effects, but also unravel the mystery of her mother's past. Like her mother, Clio, Callie is named for a muse, and her full name is Calliope Notaris Brown. In shortening her name, she has rejected her Greek heritage. Yet, her mother has rejected her American heritage for her; in fact, for the first weeks of her life in America, Clio papered over the windows of her marital home. Perhaps discovering why her mother kept the news of Nestor's death from her may, in turn, explain why her mother always hated living in America, why her family lost its livelihood during World War II and why her aunts hold her mother responsible for that loss. Callie arrives in Patras, Greece, just in time for carnival, whose ecstatic abandon leads Callie into toying with a liaison of her own, as she uncovers her mother's and uncle's secrets. During the confusing time of the Italian and then German occupation of Greece, every possession could be confiscated, every plan could lead to betrayal, and every love could lead to disaster. Power's tale fluidly shifts among Callie's investigation into her family's past, her search for her own place--is it with Jonah?--and Clio's wartime experiences. Memories inhabit the present, easily holding a mirror between Callie's and Clio's choices in different times, different circumstances. Well-paced and filled with likable, plausibly flawed characters.

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February 15, 2013

Cali Brown learns from her cousin in Greece that their beloved uncle has died and left her the bulk of his estate. This news reaches Cali at a time when, despite a recent engagement, her romantic and family relationships feel less than stable. Unsure of her future marriage and lacking a relationship with her emotionally distant mother, she heads to Greece to sort through the pieces of her family's life and her own. As she combs through her uncle's belongings, she finds remnants of life in Greece during World War II that lead her to question discrepancies in family history and her mother's perpetual sadness. VERDICT This debut novel offers an interesting premise and vibrant setting, but poor editing allows it to be weighed down by unnecessary plot points and shifting narrators. The storyline loses rhythm when historical chapters told from her mother's point of view interrupt Cali's narration. Though family and emotional history are explained, the novel is too uneven for readers to relate to the characters.--Madeline Solien, Deerfield P.L., IL

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
A powerful story of family, betrayal, and forgiveness, The Clover House is set in Greece during WWII and at present-day Carnival. To escape her Greek heritage and the mother whose love she always sought, Calliope Notaris Brown Americanizes her name to Callie. But when her uncle, Nestor, dies, leaving the contents of his house to his favorite niece, Callie must return to Greece to sort through all that Nestor has hoarded and to face her estranged mother, Clio. Arriving as Carnival begins, Callie is swept up in the wild abandon and the attentions of a young man, further threatening a troubled relationship with her fianc' in Boston. Callie avoids her problems by digging through her uncle's possessions, unearthing the story of a young Clio in the Italian-occupied Greece of the 1940s. As she pieces together her mother's past, Callie discovers herself in the process and reveals a family secret that Nestor wanted her to find all along. In her first novel, Power melds the stories of mother and daughter into an absorbing tale that deserves to rank high on the list of women's fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)