The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou (Review by Maggie Majstrova)

Rating: 5/5

They say she’s a murderer. She says nothing.

Set in 1950s London, this historical crime novel was inspired by a true story. While there is, indeed, a crime at the centre of the story – the brutal murder of Zina’s daughter-in-law, of which the Cypriot grandmother has been accused – this book is rich with global and local history, the Greek diaspora in London, the meeting of several generations of immigrants and how they navigate the world in their own ways and multifaceted human relationships.

The tale is told primarily through the connection between Zina, who speaks very little English, and Eva, her young interpreter, as the former awaits and then undergoes trial and the latter gets more and more attached to the case and Zina herself. A complex multi-generational relationship, that ebbs and flows with the pages. But the story also explores the relationships in Eva’s and Zina’s lives separately to each other, drawing on the web of events that have brought them to this particular moment in time.

How will they navigate it? And is Zina a victim or a killer? She has, in fact, been accused of killing before..

I started the book because I wanted to know, did she really do it? But very quickly, this question (although it never went way completely) became secondary to Zina and Eva, the glitz and glamour of 1950s London and the practicalities of navigating life as a immigrant to a new country. The author, Eleni Kyriacou, a daughter of Greek-Cypriot immigrant parents, has been quoted as saying she’s never felt completely British nor Greek, but has always felt a Londoner. And that, is something, I think, entire generations can relate to.