Pomegranate Years

"Unexpected, rare, and a revelation . . . Sarah Kafatou has given us a gentle-paced, keen-eyed lesson, day by day, in how to live as we get older."―Rachel Hadas, author of Strange Relation: A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia, and Poetry and Poems for Camilla

Pomegranate Years is an intimate account of three years on the island of Crete, which, for Sarah Kafatou, is not a vacation destination, but a home. Daily life is enlivened by chance encounters and accidents. Long walks in the mountains bring to light hidden aspects of the island. Understanding, and belonging, is enriched through historical awareness and conversations with friends.

The journal follows events in Greece during the years 2014-2017, a turbulent and stressful period, a time of economic crisis and political conflict--and is rich in reflection about that. It is also deeply concerned with illness and death, as the author's husband Fotis Kafatos, a distinguished scientist, is increasingly affected by Alzheimer's disease, yet remains a full human being, authentic and resilient despite his impairments.

Sarah Kafatou is a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and has made verse translations of several classics of world literature. She is also an artist, and her journal succeeds in making vivid the thought processes involved in creating or appreciating a work of art.

As an account of a solitude, a couple, a family, and a culture, Pomegranate Years is concerned with the question of how to live well at any age, but especially as one grows older and a beloved life draws almost imperceptibly nearer to its end.