Back on the boat, Ian holds the pearl up to the sun. The light refracts, and a thin thread of silver appears, winding itself into the air, forming words that hover just above the water’s surface:

: While the setting is rooted in antiquity, the primary lens is the exploration of homoeroticism

Hanks does not shy away from the economic depression, the brain drain of young Greeks, or the tension between tradition and tourism. Yet, the are never depressing. They are, as Hanks once wrote in a rare forward, "love letters written from the bottom of a very deep, very salty well."