A House in Corfu
Published by Henry Holt and Co.
A “delightful memoir” of an unspoiled island and an English family making a home by the Aegean Sea (Publishers Weekly).
In the early 1960s Emma Tennant’s parents, on a cruise, spotted a magical bay and decided to build a house there. This book is the story of that house, Rovinia, set above the bay in Corfu where legend has it Ulysses was shipwrecked and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous. It is also the story of the couple who have been at Rovinia since the feast in the grove that followed the roof-raising—Maria, a miraculous cook and the presiding spirit of the house, and her husband, Thodoros—and of the inhabitants of the local village, high on the hill above the bay.
Tennant offers us the delights of quotidian adventures—salt water in the well, roads to nowhere, collapsing walls—all hilariously presented. That the house is still lived in and loved, with new generations coming to understand the delights of Corfu, is a tribute to the people and a special landscape that is distinctly Greek. Full of color and contrast, A House in Corfu shows the huge changes in island life since the time of the Tennants’ arrival, and celebrates, equally, the joy of belonging to a timeless world: the world of vine, olive, and sea.
“Much more than a good travelogue. [Tennant] has captured the personalities of the islanders as well as their idiosyncratic customs.” —The Boston Globe
“Anyone who has ever dreamed of picking up and moving to a totally new world should enjoy this book.” —Providence Journal
“This account of an alternative lifestyle undertaken before modern pop culture had reached all corners of the earth will appeal to travelers, expatriates and their admirers.” —Publishers Weekly
“Likely to induce a serious longing to hop on the next flight to Greece . . . Tennant expertly captures the intoxicating sights, tastes, and smells.” —Booklist
In the early 1960s Emma Tennant’s parents, on a cruise, spotted a magical bay and decided to build a house there. This book is the story of that house, Rovinia, set above the bay in Corfu where legend has it Ulysses was shipwrecked and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous. It is also the story of the couple who have been at Rovinia since the feast in the grove that followed the roof-raising—Maria, a miraculous cook and the presiding spirit of the house, and her husband, Thodoros—and of the inhabitants of the local village, high on the hill above the bay.
Tennant offers us the delights of quotidian adventures—salt water in the well, roads to nowhere, collapsing walls—all hilariously presented. That the house is still lived in and loved, with new generations coming to understand the delights of Corfu, is a tribute to the people and a special landscape that is distinctly Greek. Full of color and contrast, A House in Corfu shows the huge changes in island life since the time of the Tennants’ arrival, and celebrates, equally, the joy of belonging to a timeless world: the world of vine, olive, and sea.
“Much more than a good travelogue. [Tennant] has captured the personalities of the islanders as well as their idiosyncratic customs.” —The Boston Globe
“Anyone who has ever dreamed of picking up and moving to a totally new world should enjoy this book.” —Providence Journal
“This account of an alternative lifestyle undertaken before modern pop culture had reached all corners of the earth will appeal to travelers, expatriates and their admirers.” —Publishers Weekly
“Likely to induce a serious longing to hop on the next flight to Greece . . . Tennant expertly captures the intoxicating sights, tastes, and smells.” —Booklist
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