In 1954, Charmian Clift set off with her family to the remote Greek island of Kalymnos, where she and her husband were to work on a book about the local sponge divers. Little did she know that the charm of this place would change them forever. They stayed much longer than planned, and the rhythm of Kalymnos life and the rituals of the islanders so captivated her that she decided to write about them. “Mermaid Singing” is the first volume of Clift’s Greek duology. The second volume is the book “Peel Me a Lotus,” published in Poland in 2024.