A theater for dreamers

Erica's mother surprised her family when it was discovered after her death that she owned a green convertible, a symbol of a hidden flashy side to her life, suggested also by the fact that she left the teenage Erica with some money and the admonition to find her own adventures. Erica sets off with her boyfriend and brother in the summer of 1960 to a Greek island in this provocative tale of an insular group rife with betrayals. Once there, Erica hopes to learn more about her mother's secrets from the glamorous Charmian, a friend of her mother's and an author who is at the center of a swirl of artistic types with their own sordid histories. With Charmian's ill husband set to release a novel that outlines an alleged affair between Charmian and another island-dweller, and a ne'er-do-well Norwegian author carrying on his extramarital romance even after the arrival of his wife and young baby, the tension on the island reaches a fever pitch. Samson's achingly beautiful depictions of the sun-soaked Greek paradise contrast strongly with the dark inner lives of its inhabitants. Tantalizing summer reading.

Writer and Pink Floyd lyricist Samson's perceptive latest (after The Kindness) dissects the 1960s expat community on the Greek island of Hydra. Narrator Erica, 18, leaves drab 1960 London with her boyfriend and brother, looking for sun and a cheap place to make art. They choose Hydra because Australian writer Charmian Clift, an old friend of Erica's recently deceased mother, is living there. The welcoming Charmian and her husband, fellow writer George Johnson, are the epicenter of the community, and soon Erica knows everyone, including newly arrived songwriter Leonard Cohen and his beautiful lover, Marianne Ihlen. Samson brings off the scenes of drunken philosophizing, arguing, and gossiping with distinct, intimate credibility. Hydra is beautiful and the company glamorous, but the story feels less escapist than sad and gloomy, as the women cook while the men write, drink, and complain about writing. Cohen is the most famous character, but the book's real star is Charmian, who tries to find time to write while coping with an ill and jealous husband and mothering her own children and Erica. The Cohen apocrypha will certainly interest his fans, but Samson's greatest accomplishment is the multifaceted portrait of Charmian. The attention Samson pays to since-overlooked Charmian in this nuanced portrait may put the Australian writer back on the map. (May)

An alluring historical novel revolves around the genesis of a relationship that inspired poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen. On one level, this historical novel is a delectable work of escapism. Set on the impossibly picturesque Greek island of Hydra, it focuses on a group of expatriate writers and artists living the bohemian life in 1960. Its wide-eyed narrator is 18-year-old Erica. Mourning the recent death of her mother and fleeing a domineering father, she leaves London with her brother, a painter, and her sweet boyfriend, an aspiring poet. They head for Hydra to visit an old friend of her mother's. Erica is fictional, but the friend, Charmian Clift, was a real Australian novelist who lived for years on Hydra with George Johnston, her husband and fellow writer. Charmian is an irresistible earth mother who, as Erica marvels, can wear a patched shirt and tie her hair up with a shoestring and look chic. George is a towering grouch who complains about the constant stream of new visitors "lured by our fantastically blue water and cheap rent to live out their carefree immorality away from prying city eyes." But his and Charmian's chaotic, welcoming household, tumbling with children and delicious food, is a magnet for the artistic crowd. That crowd also includes such real figures as Norwegian novelist Axel Jensen and his ethereally beautiful wife, Marianne Ihlen--and a very young and not yet famous Leonard Cohen. Yes, that Marianne, and the novel unfolds around the start of their relationship, amid dreamy days and nights of parties and feasts and sexual adventures, painted in lush prose. (Cohen fans will enjoy the author's deft weaving of his song lyrics into his dialogue.) But Samson is up to something else as well--Marianne, Charmian, Erica, and most of the other women in the book are the muses of male artists, and that role gets a cool-eyed dissection. They might be inspiring poems and novels and paintings, but they're also doing all the cooking and cleaning and, in Hydra, hauling water up the hill, not to mention bearing babies, coddling their partners' fragile egos, and quashing any creative talents they might have themselves. It's a role that, in this theater, can end tragically. Brilliant people in a beautiful setting add up to seductive time travel, with an edge. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.