Eleni

It is sometimes said that each of us has one great book to write, but that few of us will have the talent, time and inclination to write it. And if so, then this is Nicholas Gage's great book, and time, talent and inclination were clearly not lacking.But there is a recurring problem with books of this kind. While passion is the engine of greatness, it is also the author of blindness. As love is blind, so is anger, and there is plenty of both here.Nicholas Gage portrays his mother in heroic saintly terms that seem just too good to be true. While there are heroes and saints (and Eleni may well have been both) the inclination to simplify heroes and saints into their types takes away from them as much as it gives. In this case I cannot help feeling that the Eleni of the book is as much the expression of the hope and love and despair of a motherless son than a description of the real person.And when Nicholas Gage writes in the first person dramatic mode, rather than the expository mode, there are moments where the story rings unconvincing. For example, the scene in which he finds himself in front of the sleeping judge who sentenced his mother to death, with a revolver in his hand, and struggling with the moral dilemma; to kill or not. I am sure Nicholas Gage imagined this kind of encounter on many occasions. I believe it a safe bet that he was never actually in that situation. It must have been clear to him from the outset that the revelation of the facts in this book would be revenge enough, and for the intellectually inclined and gentle character he portrays himself to be, that must have been enough. It is just an intuition of mine, an indication not so much of fact as of Gage's failure to convince me on this detail.Even so, it is a powerful, compelling and monumental work, written with great passion. Strongly recommended.

Read this book many years ago and it was a heart rending story.. lost my original and plan to read this story again. just shows how politics affects all our lives and all too often in negative ways.. not to mention gossiping, jealous people.. Nicholas did a wonderful job in showing the world just what an amazing person his mother, Eleni was.. It never ends, just look at what is happening in the middle east right now, and all the suffering the innocents have to endure!! But this is and will be a neverending story, it is unfortunately, human beings..

The book is well written, and gives the reader much to think about beyond the particulars of the Greek civil war. The human experience includes much intolerance, manipulation, envy and fear, as well as more elevating characteristics such as love, loyalty, courage and sacrifice. The Greek proverb quoted near the beginning was extremely appropriate; “when buffalo battle in the marsh, it’s the frogs that pay.” There are many people and small nations that have suffered greatly in the power struggles of the mighty and ambitious. Yet it is also important to contemplate the actions of individuals in this context, and how their actions make things better or worse. The frog might not survive, but it can retain some dignity and integrity, and this is a large part of the story told here. When the larger players have faded or left for other battlegrounds, healing is a necessary but difficult process, and the book (as well as his daughter’s sequel North of Ithika) examines the process of understanding and overcoming the past as well.

This is a haunting book, one I read years ago and recently bought again as a Christmas gift for someone who hadn't heard of it. It really is a book everyone should read. Back during the Greek Civil War, a family was living in the remote mountains while their father had gone to the U.S. to earn money and had been sending it home to the family. The rebels were drafting young children to fight, and Eli was determined to get her children out of the country. They become immigrants, adjusting to a new life in a new country where they do not speak the language, do not know the customs, have never seen a light bulb or a flush toilet. The determination and efforts of this family to make a new life and to be successful citizens will be etched into your memory. It is one of my all time favorite non-fiction books. The ending will have you staying up all night to finish it.

This is a tough read. It's way too long, and requires you keep a notepad to write down the names and various guerilla groups. It tells the story of the endless, brutal, not well known civil war in Greece from 1939 to 1949. During that period, the author's mother was cruelly tortured and murdered because she secreted her children successfully away from her village, but she couldn't make the journey. The author was 9. Decades later, as a grown investigative reporter for the New York Times, he returns to Greece to try to understand what happened to his mother. The personal story is more gripping than the history lesson. I found the war part hard to follow. I did not love this book and wouldn't have read it or finished it if it weren't a book club book.

While it took me a while to get there, once you get through the first 50 or so pages, you cannot put the book down. It is a captivating tale of a compassionate, smart, and brave mother whose sole purpose is to get her children safely out of the danger. Eleni is an inspiration.

A powerful and immersive piece of work. Incredibly insightful into the values, roles, societal and cultural expectations of life in rural Greece at the time (pre to post WW2 and the following Civil War), and how they impacted on and constrained a woman’s desperate attempt to survive and protect her children from the barbarism, hardship, famine and persecution brought by civil war. At times an excruciating example of how jealousy, paranoia and power corrupt, and how the lust for power not only brings out the worst in mankind, but as is so often the case, enables the worst of mankind.The author has clearly immersed himself in this period and used his well-honed investigative skills to write not just a comprehensive historical account and timeline (it also touches on the wider communist movement in Europe at the time), but a beautiful portrayal of a country, its landscape and culture, his mother, her love and the legacy she created.It is very long and hard going, but if you enjoy historic novels and social history, read this book. If you can handle a double whammy of Greece's Civil war, but with more on the persecution and turbulent years that followed (and for balance, as covers the atrocities committed by the western-backed Facists also), try Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop (over 1/3 shorter at 400pages, so not as exhausting, but historically accurate from what I can see)

This story brings history home through the eyes of witnesses in a small village. It is a great read apart from anything else. The author's research is meticulous.Recommended by my Greek cousins who lived through this era but at schools in other countries. It came up in conversation about the Greek economy and also I mentioned i had been reading "Birds without wings" about a village in Turkey used to illustrate the regional history in the early 1900s.Even with the messy politics and economy in Greece today, the Greeks have dodged what could have been even worse.

This book is truly incredible. I first read it about thirty years ago and it made a huge impression but I’d lost my copy due to international moves and so bought it again and am re reading it. It really is superbly written, it’s the most moving and harrowing story of a Greek mother’s love, strength and sacrifice. I highly recommend this book as it really is superb.

I first encountered a serialised version of this book (Probabaly an RD version) as a child and even then it had made a considerable impression on me, even if I was probably too young to understand fully the politics of it, but even as a young boy I could appreciate the harrowing impact of losing ones mother, especially in such horrific circumstances.Whilst there has been some criticism levelled at Gage along the lines of his personal bias and his therefore quite understandable anti communist perspective offering a perhaps skewed impression of the Greek Civil War. What is undeniable is his pedigree as an investigative journalist and the vast research that he has brought this experience to bear on his own personal story. Recreating it, as he does as a partially 3rd person account, part personal recollection through he eyes of a young boy and part recreated or imagined from the accounts of all those he interviewed (over 200 apparently) in trying to piece together the entire story of how and why his mother was executed. That he does this so magnificently and in so great and gripping a level of detail is testament to both his ability as a researcher but also as a great story teller.It may be intrepreted as either a commendation or a negative mark against the book that apparently President Ronald Regan claimed that he decided to reenter arms treaty negotiations with the USSR after reading this book. Be that as it may, it is certainly a harrowing indictement of the many failed totaliarian regiemes and political experiments that have been imposed on peoples round the world, often against their will, during the 20th century and, as such is a good companion piece to the likes of Wild Swans and The Killing Fields. It was also interesting in that it sheds a totally different perspective on the Greek experience of the 1940's than say the fictional and somewhat at times idyllic portrayal of the Greece of De Berniers Captain Corellis Mandolin.Like many historical books on such a vast scale this gives me an appetite for further reading and research on the period covered and the politics of the region, even if, outside all the politics and tyranny and betrayal, it is simply at heart a tale of the love of a mother for her family above all alse and the lengths she was prepared to go to protect them which ultimately cost her her life. And that to any parent of young children, which I now am myself, is probabaly the most disturbing and truly harrowing narrative one can read in any genre

This book not only tells us so much about the Greek civil war but about life as an innocent family caught in the middle. The details even down to conversations, were thoroughly researched by the son of an innocent, courageous and loving mother who was executed by the monsters who took over her village. Learning about the villagers way of life was fascinating and reading about the dreadful way they were treated has moved me immensely. This story of a mother's love for her children and her determination to make them safe is beautifully written and powerfully told. A book I will read again and again.