Why read The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou?

Book cover of The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou

Book description

**Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club 2023** 'Tense. Moving. Morally complex. Zina Pavlou is wholly unforgettable.' Rachel Rhys 'Hugely powerful... Easily one of the best books you'll read this year.' Emma Christie THEY HAVE TOLD SO MANY LIES ABOUT ME. London, 1954. Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot grandmother,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Patricia Román

Author

Zina Pavlou is a woman with a past. Her unspeakable acts seem incomprehensible until we are taken across the sea to Cyprus and into her tiny prison cell in the UK, where the true facts emerge.

I found the story compelling, dramatic, and informative, and it landed me disoriented but compassionate inside Zina’s disturbed mind.

From Patricia's list on women battling the patriarchy.

Frances Quinn

Author

The book is inspired by the true story of one of the last women to be hanged for murder in England.

Zina, accused of murdering her daughter-in-law, comes from Cyprus, speaks no English and can barely read or write in Greek, and the story is told partly from her point of view, and partly from that of the young interpreter who’s brought in for her trial. Most people know about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged here, but this story isn’t known, and I was fascinated that it happened a relatively short time ago.

Both the main characters…

From Frances' 3 favorite reads in 2023.