Fish Soup

Mystical, yet at the same time worldly, and written in a quirky lilt (in three very different voices), this feast for the senses will lavish your own life with tears and delight, and perhaps a little more than a touch of whimsy. In the magical and esoteric atmosphere of the Greek Islands, sisters Isa and Chloe fetch up on the shores of a very special haven, each searching for more than just the pungently fragrant recipe of a heady Mediterranean fish soup. They come for the weekend, bringing their baggage with them: both kinds. Cecelia, their mentor, helps the girls wend their way through not only learning to make the soup, but also through a cobweb of emotional healing. Unexpectedly she discovers that the compliment is returned. The three women are each entwined in their own Greek drama, with tragedy and comedy in unequal measure, as they tread the paths to their own romantic understandings, fulfilment, and closure - with a bit of hectic adventure thrown in along the way. (This is Greece, after all!) Although this is Michelle Heatley's first novel to be published, she is already well established as a short story writer - indeed, "Fish Soup" started out as a one-page story, "Fish Soup Day". When it was featured in an anthology for the Stratford Literary Festival, she was inspired to turn it into a book. It was a great move!