Demetra Angelis Foustanellas

Demetra Angelis Foustanellas

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Secrets in a Jewellery Box, historical fiction, romance, contemporary women’s

Quick description: Born in Canada to Greek immigrant parents, Elly has dedicated her life to raising her daughter, Nena. As she reaches her teenage years, however, Nena’s desire to reconnect with her father intensifies and she desperately begs Elly to let her visit him in Greece. Nena has never understood her parents’ separation and simply cannot fathom her mother’s less than enthusiastic attitude toward a father/daughter reconciliation.

Nena’s need to see the father she barely knew forces Elly to confront her painful, and often complicated, past. Growing up in a tight-knit – but often suffocating – Greek immigrant community, the adolescent Elly often clashed with her intensely conservative parents. The customs and moral values of the Greek minority lifestyle that her parents forced her to observe left Elly feeling trapped in an identity she could never truly call her own.

Then she meets Perry, a handsome Greek immigrant with whom she is instantly smitten. As a teenage bride, Elly welcomes the chance to escape her parents’ rigid household. However, as Perry’s patriotism and obligations come to light, Elly quickly discovers that she has simply traded one form of frustration for another.

Her marriage to Perry rapidly dissolves, leaving Elly a single mother and more resentful than ever of her Greek heritage. But will her daughter’s desire to reconnect with her father lure Elly back to Greece?

Enjoy this heartwarming tale of Elly’s struggle to find her place in the world.

Brief biography:
Demetra Foustanellas was born in Ottawa, Canada to Greek immigrant parents in 1957. At the age of thirty-one, she relocated to her ancestral home of Greece with her husband and two children. Foustanellas spent the following years observing and researching her own heritage, as well as that of her familial country. Her insight and research are documented within her debut novel, Secrets in a Jewellery Box, a project inspired by experiences extracted from both worlds: the diaspora and Greece.

Foustanellas currently lives with her husband, Diamantis, on the Greek island of Samos with plans on spending half their time in Ottawa, where their children have now returned.

Links to buy Demetra’s book:
Website
Amazon – eBook and paperback
Chapters/Indigo – Kobo eBook
Overdrive – for libraries

Demetra’s promo links:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

What are you working on now?
Taking a break from writing for the moment to promote my (debut) novel, Secrets in a Jewellery Box.

Demetra’s reading recommendation:
Rosemary Nixon – Are You Ready To Be Lucky?