Sea of Many Returns

by Arnold Zable

Ithaca. I cannot recall the first time I heard the word. It has always been there like an ancient longing welling up from the sea.
Xanthe is drawn to Ithaca, the birthplace of her father Manoli and her maternal grandfather Mentor. She is translating Mentor’s manuscript, his story of leaving Ithaca and his life in Australia: fleeing the Kalgoorlie riots, working in Melbourne coffee houses with his compatriots, studying in the State Library, and learning to dream his way back to Ithaca and back to his lost son.
Slowly she begins to understand her father’s dark moods. The lure of the sea. The promise of fortune. And the ache for the hum of the Ionian winds, the rhythm of the looms and the silence of the rocky Ithacan soil.
The island of Homer’s Odyssey has beguiled readers for millennia. Master storyteller Arnold Zable takes us to modern-day Ithaca, to its mountains, its villages and its harbours, and into the houses of its people. Sea of Many Returns is a profound meditation on displacement, nostalgia and exile—a story that affirms the enduring resonance of the Odyssey for voyagers of all times.

Arnold Zable is a widely published writer, storyteller and educator. His books include Wanderers and Dreamers , the award-winning Jewels and Ashes, Café Scheherazade and The Fig Tree; the companion CD of which was winner of the National Folk Recording Award. Arnold Zable performs as a storyteller, drawing on his experiences, travels and knowledge of Yiddish culture. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and son.