Wild Sage

About the Book

On the outside they seem to be a picture perfect American family. Ted and Amanda are both business-professionals who enjoy a high standard of living. Though neither of them wants to admit it, they silently understand that their marriage is at a fragile crossroad, and it is their son, Thane, who holds them united. Thane, a college-student who revels in his newfound freedom, begins to form a set of independent ideologies that put him at odds with others in his family. His little sister Annie, a pretty young girl in her sophomore year in high school, aware of her blossoming curves but not sure how to behave in them, is preoccupied with her desire to fit in with the popular cliques.

When circumstances throw this family into the confining and stifling quarters of a remote and backwards Greek village, they are befriended by an old Greek man with the memory of an elephant, his dynamic and busy-body sister-in-law, his senile wife, a young beautiful village girl and a newfound cousin and friend. As these dissimilar individuals labor together to uncover dark secrets that transpired in their village during the Second World War and the Greek Civil War that followed, neither the Greeks nor the Americans are able to foresee how startling revelations will cause them to reevaluate the way they view foreigners, friendships, and family.

About the Author

Melissa Orme was born and raised in Southern California. After receiving her doctorate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, she worked as a Professor at the University of California for twelve years, after which time she did the unfathomable: she relinquished her tenure in favor of a new life in the hectic city of Athens where her time is devoted to her twin sons, her husband (a Greek national), her writing, and her observations and ponderings of different peoples and cultures. She is also the author of Vignettes of Modern Greece, which was reviewed as one the five best books on Athens in 2005.