The Invisible, Peter Papathanasiou

The second George Manolis novel sees him flying from Australia to Greece on an extended holiday after a turbulent time. Recently divorced, mourning the death of his much loved father, Manolis returns to the place of his father's birth - the Prespes region which straddles the borders of Greece, Albania and North Macedonia (read the author's acknowledgements for more about this rather sensitive region and his approach) - and the tiny village of Glikonero. It's a chance to reconnect with his father through his homeland, and fulfil a promise to deliver an heirloom set of komboloi. It means Manolis can catch up with his own friends including Stavros returned to Greece to live after a childhood in Australia, and maybe track down a long lost aunt.

But he returns to find the old friend he's particularly keen to catch up with - Lefty (Lefteris), has vanished. Lefty's lived his life under the radar which hasn't helped anybody to find him now - undocumented, almost vagrant, a loveable rascal who knows the hills and the borderlands very well, he hasn't been above a bit of smuggling and illegal movement in the past. Manolis sets out to find his old friend, by setting himself up as a labourer in the village, doing some work on the shack that Lefty has been living in (which Stavros owns), hunting for a man who, in the words of the local police "doesn't want to exist, let alone be found".

What was particularly interesting for a reader who loved the sense of Australian place and sensibilities in THE STONING, was that feeling again - this time for Greece, and the Prespes region in particular. The culture, the environment, and the sensibility of this place came alive in this novel, with Manolis roaming the area through woods, onto snake infested islands, around the lake that the small town is set beside. His thinking is that Lefty may have fallen into a mineshaft, or a cave, been attacked by a wild bear or wolf, or one of his black market forays could have gone awry. Of course he could also have drowned, been shot by a hunter, annoyed his elderly neighbour just one time too many, or simply walked away from his life to start again somewhere else. With a character like Lefty it's hard to know where to start looking, and it's only after some serious digging in his cottage do some clues appear - a toolbox stuffed with euros, forged passports and a bag full of weapons.

Along the way, Manolis learns much about the small village and the area his father came from. The culture is quintessentially Greek, with traditions and beliefs that go way back. These mingle with those of nearby neighbours, the Romani that move through the area, and the way that the village is ageing, dying off with no young people to carry on. Profoundly affected by war and its aftermath. Papathanasiou very poignantly spins the story of Lefty's disappearance into a complicated carpet of official corruption, the tradition of sworn virgins, mass removal of children following the civil war and the treatment of disabled children.

The resolution, when it comes, tumbles into place as a combination of everything, all the sadder for it, all the more moving because of it.

It's one of those series that I suspect readers will come to initially for the sense of place, but increasingly the way that George Manolis interacts with the place he's in, the people he come across, and the way he sees the world is going to be the thing that draws us back.