Corelli's Mandolin

A Novel

By: Louis de Bernieres

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The acclaimed story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history: "An exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from his sarcophagus to cure the mad. Then the tide of World War II rolls onto the island's shores in the form of the conquering Italian army.

Caught in the occupation are Pelagia, a willful, beautiful young woman, and the two suitors vying for her love: Mandras, a gentle fisherman turned ruthless guerilla, and the charming, mandolin-playing Captain Corelli, a reluctant officer of the Italian garrison on the island. Rich with loyalties and betrayals, and set against a landscape where the factual blends seamlessly with the fantastic, Corelli's Mandolin is a passionate novel as rich in ideas as it is genuinely moving.

©2012 Louis de Bernieres (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Brims with all the grand topics of literature—love and death, heroism and skull-duggery, humor and pathos, not to mention art and religion.... A good old-fashioned novel." —The Washington Post Book World

"An exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Stunning.... A high-spirited historical romance.... Remarkable." —The New York Times Book Review

Just as wonderful as when first published

I read Corelli’s Mandolin when it was first published and fell in love with it. It’s one of my very favorite books. I braced myself for the audiobook not living up to my very fond memories and needn’t have worried. The narration is as magical as the story.

Timeless tale of war and romance

Wonderful combination of history and romance set in the tragedy of war. Beautiful, illustrative character development. I loved the author’s wit and didn’t want it to end.

Totally Transported

I have been an Audible member since 2002, and this has been simply the best listening experience I have had. Stephen Lang does masterful job bringing these animated characters to life and sweeping you into the cyclone that was life in Greece at this time.

Just a great experience - recommend it highly.

Exquisite writing

This is a fabulous book. The story and characters are well developed and the writing is almost poetic at times. I have not seen the movie but am trying to find it online. I have read many WWII books, but had not read one placed in Greece so this presented a new view for me.

Enjoyable, but movie was better

Great story and great characters. The movie and book have some similarities, but they are different. While I liked the movie better, the book was very enjoyable. I would recommend this book.

The perfect narrator for the perfect story

I found this book after hearing David Brooks quote a passage about true love from the book by David Brooks on PBS news. To the reader or listener, I recommend you to stay with it … the author takes his time to introduce and develop each character … endearing them to us over time … and leaving us longing for their company when the book ends. Cannot recommend this one enough … and I recommend this as an audible over a book to be read, if you can. The narrator is outstanding!

Wonderful novel; Great narrator!

This is a terrific older book which deserves a new look by all who were too young to have been exposed to it years ago. It has the scope of a Gone With the Wind, also a wartime novel entwined with a love story. The author has a powerful command of language which combines with the narrator’s Italian or Greek accent to make book brilliantly come to life.

LOVELY! Moving, hilarious, enlightening...

BEAUTIFUL and often humorous historical novel with a dash of love story. Seeing WWII from a view of Italian soldiers and Greek citizens broadens and deepens my (US American) limited understanding of the war, of the contemporary political ideologies, and the ordinary & extraordinary lives of Greek townspeople. The novel also opens up to readers the Italian & German occupation of Greece, the apparent shift in the Italian military allegiance & the nightmare of atrocities (or so-called Greek civil war) that followed.

The writing is nothing less than poetic elegance. The language is sometimes ironically erudite and sometimes erudite for precision and not at all to ironical effect, but even then, it's not pretentious. Grab a dictionary if context doesn't do it.

The narration is excellent and make the satirical passages all the more hilarious (especially re the Duce!).

Word to the impatient: UNFORTUNATELY, the final chapters felt unnecessarily tortuous to me. The author seems to have been determined to create a tidy "happy endings" type conclusion--to the extent that such a story could dare to end happily. It was difficult to listen from chapter 64 to the end. I felt obliged, then annoyed, and finally disappointed. I wished I stopped at the end of ch 63.

NONETHELESS, the book is too wonderful otherwise. I couldn't put it down. I deeply value the experience.

Spectacular epic

This story told over several decades is a wonderful tale of love lost and love regained set against the background of wartime and postwar Greece.

A story to be read more than once

I first read this book in 1999 when a friend in England sent me a paperback copy. He loved going to Greece on holiday and had enjoyed this book tremendously. Back then it was called Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. So recently my book club announced that we might read Corelli’s Mandolin and I decided to get it on Audible for a re-read. What a great story with so much history of this island that lived through so much tragedy. The story is complex and rich, a story to be read and savored. I recommend listening to it but having a copy nearby to pick up and follow along sometimes.