Three pairs of eyes regard Calista now, their expressions grave. Relief floods her. She has managed that much at least—to retrieve their names, who they are, who their grandmother is.
Calista does not want these children here, but she cannot say that to Rosa. Rosa would not understand, and Calista does not wish her to.
Instead, she extends one arm, a gracious movement that reminds her instantly of María-Luisa. Her mother’s face is still vivid; she thinks about her and Timothy every day. Dead now, of course, along with all the others whom Calista has loved.
She must remember her manners. “Please,” Calista says now, “do sit down. Let us have some tea.”
She sees the way Rosa looks at her. For a moment, Calista has the sense that something has once again begun to escape, just when she thought she had it firmly by the hand.
What is it? Is there no tea? She feels her lower lip begin to tremble. How can she have forgotten to buy tea?
Rosa leans down and lifts up the walking stick that lies on the floor beside Calista’s chair. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I will look after the tea. Perhaps we will take it on the terrace?”
Calista nods. That’s a good idea. The children watch her silently. Before she attempts to stand up, she says to Rosa: “Did you know that even as the old trees are being felled, the birds are building their nests?”
Rosa reaches for Calista’s hand and tucks it into the crook of her right arm.
“Yes,” she says. “But it’s summer now, and the fledglings have all gone. Before we know it, it will be time for the birds to fly south for the winter.”
Calista walks alongside Rosa as smartly as she can, her walking stick tapping its secret message across the terracotta tiles.
The birds are indeed gone, Calista thinks. And all my nests are empty.
acknowledgments
This book has been in my head for a long time.
It’s taken even longer to make its way, finally, onto the page, and certain people have been invaluable in that process. I want to say a sincere thank you to all of them.
To my editor, Trisha Jackson, and the team at Macmillan, particularly Dave Adamson, Mary Chamberlain, Laura Collins, Natasha Harding, Ami Smithson, and Eloise Wood.
Writing the novel was a lovely opportunity to visit Cyprus, where I met Alexia Christodoulou and enjoyed both her company and her encyclopedic knowledge of her native island.
Extremadura was a great adventure, shared by Fergus Murray and Davy and Joan Abernethy. Particular thanks to Davy for all the heroic driving involved, and to Joan and Fergus for their valiant though fruitless efforts to spot the black pigs. . . .
Thanks to Luz-Mar González-Arías for introducing me to Carolina Amador, in whose company I discovered the many delights of the city of Cáceres and the wild beauty of the entire region. Long may Extremadura remain “undiscovered.”
Novels only become living things when they have readers. In this regard, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Helen Pat Hansen and Carmen Wood, who read many early drafts of this book and whose observations were always informed and intelligent. Thank you both.
To my friends-in-writing, Celia de Fréine and Lia Mills: a huge thank-you for fun, feedback, and encouragement.
And finally, but by no means least, to my tireless agents, Shirley Stewart of the Shirley Stewart Literary Agency, Nicola Barr of Greene and Heaton in London, and Grainne Fox of Fletcher and Company in New York. Couldn’t have done it without you.
Touchstone Reading Group Guide
The Years That Followed
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It is 1966. Calista is seventeen, beautiful and headstrong. She meets the handsome, much older Alexandros, and in an instant, her whole life changes. Alexandros is exotic, magnetic—and rich. He sweeps Calista off her feet. She leaves her safe, affluent Dublin home for a new life in Cyprus alongside her new husband and his family, who treat her with some suspicion.
Meanwhile, Pilar is in Madrid. Desperate to leave the grinding poverty of her life in rural Extremadura, she moves to the capital. There, she meets a man who offers her excitement and opportunity. Petros charms Pilar and she begins to imagine a future for both of them, together, although she knows it’s impossible.
Unknown to both women, tragic events are unfolding that will inextricably link their lives in a way that neither could have imagined. These events will change them and their families forever.
Inspired by Greek myth, The Years That Followed is a compelling tale of two women, thousands of miles apart, whose lives are thrown into turmoil by the power of love—and the desire for revenge.
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For Discussion
1.Calista and Pilar come from very different backgrounds. The former has grown up with all the comforts of affluence; the latter with all the particular challenges of poverty. In what ways might Calista’s wealth have influenced the choices she makes as a young woman? And how has poverty helped to shape Pilar’s view of the world?
2.The novel takes the ancient story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra as its inspiration. Clytemnestra lived in an age when women’s voices were rarely heard in the public sphere. Their individual and collective stories were regarded as unimportant. Her modern counterpart, Calista, imposes a similar kind of silence on herself, regarding the difficulties she has in her relationship with Alexandros, particularly when he turns violent. How is this tradition of female silence dealt with in the novel? Calista begins to find her voice eventually, through her own independent work. How significant is the notion of work and economic independence for both Calista and Pilar?
3.Calista hears, at a distance, about the new movement in California for women’s liberation in the 1970s. In what ways is her life different from the life of a twenty-something young woman in 2016?
4.Pilar, on the other hand, knows nothing about the movement for women’s liberation. In the novel, she strikes out for her own freedom in many different ways. How does she achieve her goals, and what makes her life so different from Calista’s?
5.Maroulla and Petros are both products of their upper-class, privileged existence. In what ways do their behavior help to perpetuate the values of their social class?
6.Alexandros is a violent man and Calista suffers extreme domestic abuse at his hands. What do you understand about the dynamic of domestic violence, as illustrated by their relationship within the novel? Why does Calista feel that she is somehow to blame? What is it that often traps women in such relationships, making them stay much longer than they should?
7.Motherhood is a central theme in the novel: the joy of having children and the grief of losing them. How powerful a motivating force is motherhood in Calista’s search for revenge? And what is your view of the other mothers in the novel—specifically María-Luisa and Maroulla?
8.The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said that if one is bent on seeking revenge, then one “must dig two graves.” How do you view this in relation to what becomes of Calista by the end of the novel?
9.Pilar performs the function of the Greek Chorus in this novel. In what ways does the trajectory of her life shed light on the choices made by Calista? In what ways might her life be seen as a commentary on the fate of Calista?
10.Childhood is a formative time, psychologically and emotionally. How would you describe the childhood influences on the characters in the novel, and in what ways are these influences visible in the adults they later become? And what, in your view, will be the fate of Omiros as he steps across the threshold into adulthood?
Photograph © Noel Hillis
CATHERINE DUNNE is the author of nine novels, including The Things We Know Now, which won the seven-hundredth anniversary Giovanni Boccaccio International Prize for Fiction in 2013 and was short-listed for the Eason Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.
She has also published one work of nonfiction: a social history of Irish immig
rants in London called An Unconsidered People.
Catherine’s novels have been short-listed for, among others, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award and the Italian Booksell- ers’ Prize. Her work has been translated into several languages.
She was recently long-listed for the first Laureate for Irish Fiction award.
She lives in Dublin.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
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Also by Catherine Dunne
In the Beginning
A Name for Himself
The Walled Garden
Another Kind of Life
Something Like Love
At a Time Like This
Set in Stone
Missing Julia
The Things We Know Now
An Unconsidered People
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Catherine Dunne
Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 by Pan Macmillan
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First Touchstone hardcover edition October 2016
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Interior design by Kyle Kabel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-3566-8
ISBN 978-1-5011-3567-5 (ebook)
The Years That Followed Page 34
