Days of Vengeance

From the time of Homer, an ancient law decrees that a man must take vengeance on the slayer of his brother. Only in that way may the curse of murder be erased and the dead be allowed to rest in peace.

For two young men from Crete, turn-of-the-century America does not hold the usual immigrant promise of a bright new world. One is a murderer seeking escape who discovers a chance for redemption and love. The other is his pursuer, a dutiful son who has taken an oath of vengeance on his brother's grave. For him, as well, the vendetta becomes an agonizing struggle between those elements of his nature that cry for retaliation and for mercy.

Across the broad American continent, names changed and identities concealed, pursued and pursuer are inexorably drawn together by the twists of fate. They both fall in love, and their women are linked into their violent destinies. When the paths of all at last converge, the shattering climax is shocking.

Days of Vengeance is a haunting tale of passion, love, guilt, and punishment that sweeps from the sun-drenched lemon groves of Crete to the poverty and superstition of Chicago's "Greek Town" to the grim brutality of western mines and railroad camps. It is a powerful
novel in which Harry Mark Petrakis once again displays his remarkable talent for creating characters whose destinies reveal both epic tragedy and the redemptive miracle of faith and love.