This thoroughly entertaining novel is a meditation on fatherhood, family and forbearance. We are in Melbourne in 1974, a time before ‘no-fault divorce’, and the Stylianou family are living under the thumb of their eccentric, domineering father Harry, the first of the ‘Two Greeks’ of the title. While Mrs Stylianou secretly plans her escape, son Andy and his big sister Angela attempt to come of age in the stifling world of Harry’s creation.

Angela rejects her father’s Greek Cypriot heritage for conventional teenage rebellion: pop music, fashion and boyfriends. When the second of the ‘Two Greeks’, Alex Voreadis, moves in next door, Andy is offered an opportunity to know a positive Greek role model and experience the treasures of Greek language and culture. Andy takes it, and forms a bond with the elderly neighbour, who has his own estrangement issues with his family. This is a novel to savour, with brilliantly drawn characters and entertaining, intimate details of suburban life in the 70s. I especially enjoyed Andy’s mother; her transformation from overweight housewife to a fit divorcee-in-the-planning is particularly satisfying, marked by astute observations that demonstrate how the feminist revolution directly transformed lives. John Charalambous outlines the dissolution of her marriage with great sensitivity. We experience her inner turmoil as she plots her way to freedom, biding her time for the impending change in divorce law, sometimes resisting, sometimes relenting, as Harry, aware that he is losing her, attempts to draw her close.

Two Greeks beautifully evokes the loneliness of individuals within even the most claustrophobic of families, with each person living a distinct, separate reality within the shared life of the household. Ultimately it is ‘Hurricane Harry’ who is in most risk of exile, but what is so lovely in this novel is that for Andy, the door is always open for reconciliation and forgiveness.

Bruno Moro is from Readings Malvern