My Xanthi by Stephanie Cotsirilos

New Paperback

A Greek immigrant woman's wartime secrets teach a criminal defense lawyer about love's triumph over injustice.

My Xanthi brings together the clashing worlds of cantankerous, loveable criminal defense lawyer Nick Milonas: southern California where he lives with his Korean-American wife and twin daughters, the suburban Midwest where his proudly assimilating family raised him during the 1950s and 60s, and the bloody Greek history his forebears and his second-most-beloved maternal presence fled. Heard through her posthumous letters, Xanthi's loving, cynical, heroic voice triggers Nick's slide into memory and long-held secrets - driving him to embrace the laughter and collapse of innocence among his lost loved ones, his clients, his conscience, and the daughters he hopes will greet their future with clarity and stubborn humanism.

My Xanthi takes an unflinching look at the human heart in upheaval - and at what endures.