The Story Behind the Story by Elene Catrakilis
Elene Catrakilis
My debut novel, Under an African Sky, is a story close to my heart because it’s set in South Africa, the country of my birth. In 1989, the country stood on the brink of change. The story follows two women from different backgrounds who share an unlikely friendship and must navigate a new world where their personal lives and close bond are tested by a nation’s political upheaval. People often ask if there was an incident which inspired the story. I wish I could say that there was a magical aha moment. But when I sat down to write, I quickly realized that the act of creation is not as easy as one would like to believe. And yet, I couldn’t stop. It was as if something kept pushing me toward a story I didn’t yet understand.
The opening line of the novel holds a clue about what kept me going and helped inspire the story: “Far away at the southernmost end of Africa, lay a country .…” In a way, South Africa became not only the setting for the story, but also the character who wouldn’t leave me alone. I wrestled with the paradox of how a country so rich in beauty, resources and spirit could find itself teetering on the edge of a cliff between hope and upheaval. This land, with all its complexities, is embedded in my heart because it’s where I grew up and first learned to see and feel. I never expected to leave the land that had shaped me, but when I met and fell in love with my husband who already had one foot planted in the United States, I knew, deep down, that I would end up living far away.
It was only after I left my birthplace that the urge to write truly took hold. Writing became a way to process the pain of separation. When I first arrived in the United States, I found myself looking back quite often, just as my parents had done after they had left Greece and Cyprus. The country I left behind began to live in my imagination, like a character in its own right. From this living presence, characters for my novel slowly emerged, each embodying some part of South Africa’s tension and complexity. I found myself writing short narrative pieces in which I stepped into the shoes of those shaping the country’s future. I imagined what it might have felt like to be Nelson Mandela weighing the hopes of a nation, or F.W. de Klerk confronting the realities of change. At times, I even wrote from the perspective of a monk on Mount Athos praying for a world in turmoil. As the pages multiplied, natural conflicts began to surface, and out of these tensions, more characters were born.
What began as an exercise in understanding soon drew me closer to my own lived experiences. Real life memories began to press against the edges of fiction, and eventually, I included an event I had tried to forget. In the novel, this particular scene echoes an ordeal my mother had endured when she survived an armed home invasion. Shortly after the attack, she developed a rare neurological illness, and though I can’t prove the connection, I’ve often wondered if the shock and fear had triggered her disease. Because of what she suffered, I wasn’t sure how to end Under an African Sky.
Hoping for clarity, I visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned. There, I met a former political prisoner turned tour guide. When he and I returned to the mainland and stepped off the ferry, I told him about my novel. He pointed to Table Mountain, Cape Town’s majestic centerpiece, draped in a flowing cloth of white clouds that the locals referred to as God’s tablecloth. “Hope,” he said, “depends on where you look and how you choose to see. Tomorrow, the wind might blow the tablecloth away, and the sharp edges will be exposed.”
Armed with this gift, I wrote hope into the story. It became a way of honoring my mother’s courage and facing the helplessness I had felt as a daughter. On the page, I had control of the situation. I could transform pain into understanding and guide the story to a happy ending. I came to realize that even when a country, or a heart, feels torn apart, there’s always an underlying thread of resilience holding it together. Maybe that’s how faith manifests itself in my writing, as a quiet hope that stays with me wherever I go.
The country where I was born will always live inside me, as will the others that have claimed me along the way. And when readers tell me they found echoes of their own lives in this story set in a faraway place, it amazes me that what began as something personal has become something more. The story I thought was mine turns out to belong to others, too. Ultimately, that’s the magic of stories once they’re out in the world. Whoever we are, wherever we are, and whatever divides us, stories have the power to connect us through our common humanity. When I think back to the question about what inspired me to write it, I realize that maybe it was that very need for connection and understanding that led me to the story.
UNDER AN AFRICAN SKY
In 1989, South Africa is one of the most complex and troubled nations on earth due to its policy of apartheid which separated people by the color of their skin. As the walls of division come tumbling down, two women must navigate a world where everything they hold dear is threatened by the crosscurrents of political upheaval.
Sofia Levantis is a Greek-Cypriot immigrant living a lavish lifestyle in South Africa, her second homeland, and will do anything to keep her children close to their Greek roots. Grace Molepe, a local South African and longtime employee in Sofia’s household, cherishes dreams for her son’s education, an opportunity that had not existed for her. The two women share an unlikely friendship but when social forces entangle their hopes for the children in an unimaginable way with devastating consequences, their bond is tested. Father Theo steps into this turmoil when he arrives from a remote Greek monastery where very little has changed in over a thousand years. The reclusive monk priest provides comfort for Grace but unsettles Sofia as memories of a youthful love affair and long-buried secrets rise to the surface.
Under An African Sky explores the heartbreak of betrayal and how neither countries nor people can move forward unless they are willing to confront their past and forgive one another. Two ordinary women living in extraordinary times reflect the resilience of the human spirit, the persistent human need to belong and the universal values of love, hope and forgiveness that connect all people.
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Elene Catrakilis is a novelist whose work explores themes of cultural identity, belonging, displacement, faith and the resilience of women.
She is a graduate of The Creativity Workshop of New York, the Yale Writers’ Conference & Workshop where she studied under award-winning novelist Julia Glass, and the Krouna Writing Workshop in Greece, led by author Henriette Lazaridis. In 2019, she received first prize in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition for her personal essay, God’s Tablecloth.
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