Additional information
by Shelley Dark (Author)
A powerful historical novel of love, exile and redemption based on the true story of Australia's first Greek convict.
He had everything - power, privilege, a future. One fateful decision cost him his name, his freedom, and everything he thought defined a man.
Sydney, 1829.
Ghikas Voulgaris was born to command - the proud son of a powerful Greek shipping family, raised to believe the world would bend to his will.
But one impulsive act during the Greek War of Independence changes everything. His punishment is swift and public: exile to the raw penal colony of New South Wales, half a world away from his island home, stripped of name and status.
In Australia, the man who once dreamed of his own fleet now tends another man's sheep and takes orders like a servant. His fellow workers don't care who he was. And Mary - a fierce Irish orphan who will bow to no man - is everything he doesn't want in a woman, and the one person who can see who he might become.
Ghikas believes he'll survive his sentence, return home, and reclaim his birthright.
But the real fight is just beginning, not against chains, but against himself.
Inspired by a true story, Son of Hydra is a sweeping tale of love, loss, and redemption, a powerful blend of Greek and Australian historical fiction that explores pride, punishment, and what it truly means to be a man.
