2023/142: The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou — Eleni Kyriacou

‘The English don’t like hanging anyone any more. They think it makes them look uncivilised, to the rest of the world. And as for hanging women, well that’s even more unpopular.’
Zina frowns. ‘Not even foreign ones?’ she asks.
Eva doesn’t speak for a few moments... [loc. 1458]

Zina Pavlou speaks very little English. She has come from Cyprus to stay with her son Michalis and his wife Hedy, caring for their children and working as an unpaid housekeeper, but Hedy wasn't happy with the arrangement. Now Hedy is dead, Zina is awaiting trial for her murder, and her family seem to have abandoned her: she has brothers, sisters and nephews, but none visit during her imprisonment. Her son (who was the translator when Zina was first arrested) believes her guilty of the murder and will have nothing to do with her. Eva Georgiou, the translator appointed by the police, is Zina's only hope, and her only friend: but Eva doesn't know if she can, or should, believe Zina's protestations of innocence

This is a powerful novel: it's about the ways in which Zina (old, unattractive, unloved, of low social class and minimal education -- and foreign) is dismissed by most of the men involved in her case, about her lack of agency -- not just in London, but back in Cyprus -- and her disintegrating grasp of the truth about what happened on the night of Hedy's death. 'She’s told the truth throughout, she wants to say, and really doesn’t know how Hedy died, or what happened that evening all those months ago. She is almost certain she had nothing to do with it.' [loc. 3964]. Eva has made a British life for herself: she speaks and writes English, has a career, and is 'respectable': but she still lacks the privilege of even a working-class Englishman. She's paid less than a man doing the same job would be, she's regarded as fair game by unscrupulous journalists, and she's struggling to understand why she's so invested in Zina's case.

This novel is based on the story of Hella Dorothea Christofis (née Bleicher), who was murdered by her mother-in-law, Styllou Pantopiou Christofi, in London in 1954. Eleni Kyriacou's afterword describes the facts that inspired the story, and it's harrowing reading. 'Seven months after Styllou’s execution, there was a huge public outcry when Ruth Ellis was hanged for the murder of her abusive lover, David Blakely. In his autobiography, the executioner to both women, Albert Pierrepoint, noted the lack of press interest in Styllou’s fate. He said, ‘One wonders if it was because she was middle-aged, unattractive and foreign?’ [loc. 5141]. In The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou (hmm, why plural 'Acts'?) it's clear that Zina is suffering from some form of mental illness. Even today, though, this is not always recognised or treated as a mitigating circumstance. Kyriacou's evocation of the early 1950s post-war British society with all its prejudice and inequality is vivid and bleak. And I grew up closer to that time than to 2023...

Fulfils the ‘Script font on spine’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 09 NOV 2023.