Annilee Newton

writer and writing teacher

Thessalonika

noun

1. The title of my novel about a girl willing to sacrifice her name and her identity to get what she wants

2. The middle name of Cleo Hart, a scholarship student at a prestigious New England university in the 1950’s

3. A feminized form of “Thessaloniki,” a city in Greece possibly named after Alexander the Great’s half-sister

In 1949, Cleo Hart’s plan for her future collapses when she’s denied an archaeological fellowship in Athens and loses her scholarship to her Ivy League university due to a bout of “unladylike behavior.” When the actual recipient of the fellowship offers her a reckless bargain and his place on the dig, Cleo disguises herself as “John,” determined to find a way forward in a society that inhibits the academic contributions of women. After her arrival and transformation in Greece, Cleo begins to find her place as a fledgling archaeologist in a country still reeling from the psychological and physical scars of civil war. When she stumbles into a network of radical leftists, her borrowed identity becomes a weapon that others can use against her. She must choose between preserving her own safety and rescuing the nine-year-old son of a notorious Communist icon.

Winner of the 2024 WILDsound Writing Festival 1st Chapter Contest, Thessalonika explores the twisted labyrinths created by ambition and shifting identities, drawing inspiration from the romantic suspense genre popular in the 1950s and 1960s. As a novel with a strong female protagonist navigating the restrictions of a male-dominated field, Thessalonika will appeal to fans of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, as well as readers drawn to the layers of political and personal conflict in Darrow Farr’s The Bombshell.