Wonderful find from my holiday in Greece from last summer. On the narrow alleys of the old town in Rethymnon I found a bookshop with good English selection and was really happy to spot my wishlist books by Hislop on their shelves.

A paperback by Headline Review, 2012, 480 pages.

Synopsis:

"Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a devastating fire sweeps through the thriving Greek city where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five years later, Katerina Sarafoglou's home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she flees across the sea to an unknown destination in Greece. Soon her life will become entwined with Dimitri's, and with the story of the city itself, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people.

Thessaloniki, 2007. A young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents' life story for the first time and realises he has a decision to make. For many decades, they have looked after the memories and treasures of the people who were forced to leave. Should he become their next custodian and make this city his home?"
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Comments on the evening of Jul 3, 2014:

The story was again very beautiful and sorrowful, the storytelling was full of emotion and the main characters were full of life. The Return and the The Island both included some war history but the amount of this was even increased in the Thread. Politics, war, economical hardships and other devastation filled many pages of this story and partly I felt those descriptions to be a bit tedious for me even though I understood they were needed to explain the destiny of the families we follow in The Thread. Compared to the historical part, the conclusions at the end of the book were almost hurriedly over and I would have loved to relish longer there. Overall, I liked Katerina and also enjoyed the embroidery theme here in the story and I do still think that Hislop is a great storyteller, but this perhaps was not as gripping as her other stories for me.

Wishlist reading for my BC friends, hope you like this!

Toivelistakirjojen lukuhaaste

Thank you for fulfilling my wish, Bookgeo! I loved The Island, I hope there's not too much history in this story, because it isn't my genre...
Erpax and Hambo have also wished to read this book, so I'll try to be quick :)

I loved this book! I was afraid there's too much history for me in this book as historical fiction isn't my favorite genre, but I was drawn in the story and liked even the historical parts. I learned so much about Greece.
Hislop has created interesting characters, I liked especially the strong and wise women. And the relationship between mother and son was beautifully described, it was touching indeed.
Thanks for sharing, Bookgeo! This was perfect reading for summer holidays as I had time to concentrate on this story.

Löytyy erpaxin ja Hambon toivelistoilta - miittiin tarjolle :)

KTMC 2014 # 70

EDIT 110814:
Erpax ei pääsytkään miittiin, ja Hambo toivoo saavansa kirjan suomenkielisenä, joten jäi vielä odottamaan hyllyyni erpaxin tapaamista.

Erpax kuittaa ja kiittää! Odotan paljon tältä kirjalta ja vähän tuossa jo kurkin edellisten kommentteja. Luulen, että tämä on pian lukuvuorossa. :)

What a magnificently written story! I enjoyed reading it. I wish Hislop had been my history teacher...

Many thanks, lukutuoli and Bookgeo! I will give this book to Tarya who will kindly take it to the next reader.

Kirja matkaa seuraavalle toivojalle. Kiitokset kuriroinnista, Tarya!

Oh, what a real surprise to get this book via couple of couriers :) kiitoskiitoskiitos :) Don't know when I'll be able to read this but hopefully soon, sounds really interesting (that's why it has been on my wish list...) :D