The island of Hydra in 1821 is a place where freedom is both dream and necessity. When Sophia, daughter of a shipbuilder, refuses the man her family has chosen for her, she chooses instead to build ships, to command them, to refuse the small prison of a woman's expected life. She names her vessel after herself - the Sophia - and in doing so, declares war on every convention that would confine her. The Greek revolution against Turkish rule provides the backdrop for Sophia's personal rebellion. As the islands rise in armed resistance, she must navigate not only the dangers of war but the suspicions of her own clan, the threat of her spurned cousin, and the impossible question of what a woman can claim for herself in times that demand everything. E.F. Benson, writing at the close of the Victorian era, gives us a heroine whose defiance feels startlingly modern despite the muskets and sailing ships. For readers who crave historical fiction with genuine edge: women who refuse to be decorative, revolutions fought with blood and will, and the particular beauty of islands caught between empires.
