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In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
When high-powered fine-art agent Flora Sykes is called in to assess objets d'art in a Paris apartment that has been abandoned since WWII, she is skeptical at first - until she discovers that under decades of dust the treasure trove of paintings is myriad...and priceless. The powerful Vermeil family to whom they belong is eager to learn more and asks Flora to trace the history of each and every painting.
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp. She feels hopeless until she meets handsome young Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families but discover that love can bloom in even the bleakest circumstances.
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Then Miranda is caught in a catastrophe and banished....
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
When high-powered fine-art agent Flora Sykes is called in to assess objets d'art in a Paris apartment that has been abandoned since WWII, she is skeptical at first - until she discovers that under decades of dust the treasure trove of paintings is myriad...and priceless. The powerful Vermeil family to whom they belong is eager to learn more and asks Flora to trace the history of each and every painting.
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp. She feels hopeless until she meets handsome young Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families but discover that love can bloom in even the bleakest circumstances.
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Then Miranda is caught in a catastrophe and banished....
1914. For Paul, with love. Jewish silversmith Johann Blumenthal engraved those words on his most exquisite creation, a singing filigree bird inside a tiny ornamented box. He crafted this treasure for his young son before leaving to fight in a terrible war to honor his beloved country - a country that would soon turn against his own family. A half century later, Londoner Lilian Morrison inherits the box after the death of her parents. Though the silver is tarnished and dented, this much-loved treasure is also a link to an astonishing past.
As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion. As the years go by, the two find themselves falling in love. But the church calls to Angelo and, despite his deep feelings for Eva, he chooses the priesthood. Now, more than a decade later, Angelo is a Catholic priest and Eva is a woman with nowhere to turn. With the Gestapo closing in, Angelo hides Eva within the walls of a convent.
Theodora knows she can't keep her five beautiful daughters at home forever - they're too curious, too free spirited, too like their late father. And so, before each girl leaves the small house on the riverside at the foot of Mount Olympus, Theodora makes sure they know they are always welcome to return. A devoted and resilient mother, Theodora has lived through World War II, through the Nazi occupation of Greece, and through her husband's death, and now she endures the twenty-year-long silence of her daughters' absence.
After a failed apprenticeship, working her way up to head housekeeper of a posh London hotel is more than Sara Smythe ever thought she'd make of herself. But when a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the grand New York apartment house The Dakota, leads to a job offer, her world is suddenly awash in possibility - no mean feat for a servant in 1884. The opportunity to move to America, where a person can rise above one's station.
Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home.
Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's legal rights. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange.
In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident - which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster - a 60-year-old human rights scholar - hits the car of Evelyn Ortega - a young undocumented immigrant from Guatemala - in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor's house seeking help.
Ren Sawyer and Lizzy Harper live completely different lives. He's a rock star with a secret he can no longer live with. She's a regular person whose husband stood her up for a long-planned anniversary trip. On a flight across the Atlantic headed for Italy, a drunken pity party and untimely turbulence literally drop Lizzy into Ren's lap. It is the last thing she can imagine ever happening to someone like her. But despite their surface differences, they discover an undeniable pull between them. A pull that leads them both to remember who they had once been before letting themselves be changed.
Beginning in the summer of 1939, 14-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and the locals hold the family in high esteem. On days when they aren't playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become a common sight. When war breaks out, Jacob's world is thrown into chaos.
Spanning 13 years from 1940 to 1953 and set against the epic panorama of WWII, author Annette Oppenlander's Surviving the Fatherland is a sweeping saga of family, love, and betrayal that illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the children's war.
Set in the London of the 1660s and of the early 21st century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city, and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of 17th-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation.
After six years in England, Rachel has returned to Kenya and the farm where she spent her childhood, but the beloved home she'd longed for is much changed. Her father's new companion - a strange, intolerant woman - has taken over the household. The political climate in the country grows more unsettled by the day and is approaching the boiling point. And looming over them all is the threat of the Mau Mau, a secret society intent on uniting the native Kenyans and overthrowing the whites.
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?
The characters in this story grow up, grow old, grow stronger or weaker against the backdrop of Greece. As I am not overly familiar with this nation's history, I was thrilled that Victoria Hislop chose to tell the story in this way.
What I liked: This story is a story about people. People putting on masks, taking them off, loving, hating, adopting, creating families, letting go. Characters make choices, good and bad, based on the information they had and who they were. Hoslop's choice of Greece, with it's political turmoil, was a wise one. The city of Thesalonica became a character of its own.
What I didn't like: There are a few too many contrivances... nothing glaring, but enough to make me stap back, raise my eyebrows and keep going. I also found the character of Constantinos as too driven and diabolical to be believable. Also, occasionally the narrator would put on this over-dramatic school-teacher voice that drove me crazy! Thankfully, this was rare, but something to be aware of.
Something I wish had been done differently: The blurb on this book talks about the grandson of the main characters deciding whether or not to make Greece his home. This took up so little of the book that they should've just left it alone. It deserved more than the epilogue it received, especially since I was expecting a double-storyline as in Hislop's novel "The Return."
Overall, this book was well worth my time and credit.
If you could sum up The Thread in three words, what would they be?
Historical, romantic, well-told
What did you like best about this story?
That it was a historical novel and that it was set in a city I knew nothing about. The city itself almost became a character in the book. I also loved the characters in the book and the descripitions of their relatinships to each other.
Have you listened to any of Sandra Duncan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not listened to any of her other performance's, but I liked her as a narrator in this book.
Who was the most memorable character of The Thread and why?
Katerina, because of her importance in the story. But a lot of the other characters were also good. I especially liked Katerina's foster mother.
This is a wonderful, epic story set in the historically turbulent first half of the 20th century in Greece. It spans the two World Wars with all the sorrows and uncertainty that war causes. The aftermath of which led to displacement of people who had formerly lived in happily inter-mixed racial/religious groups but following political change are moved about in a variant of ethnic cleansing. There is a lot of historical material, that I found interesting and informative, that is the backdrop to the fictional characters who bring the book to life. They seem so real that I couldn't stop listening to find out what happened to them next. It's a truly moving book carried along by the 'thread' of a love-story interrupted by war and political upheaval read by an excellent narrator.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this story,so well written I couldn't put this down. Finished it in two days. Would definately recommend this book and Victoria Hislop is one of my favourite authors,can't wait for her next book. Only negative comment I have is the pronounciation of some of the Greek names and places were not too authentic but didn't take away the magic of this story. Loved it !!
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
Would you listen to The Thread again? Why?
For two reasons:
1) the beginning confused me and when I got to the end I wanted to listen to the start again to make sense of it all
2) it was a good book
Any additional comments?
Very few books make me cry, this one did. It took some time to get into it, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up The Thread in three words, what would they be?
feelgood history lesson
What did you like best about this story?
The characters are so real, you forget you are reading fiction
What about Sandra Duncan’s performance did you like?
she is perfect in the way she brings the story alife
Any additional comments?
This is a wonderful family saga that brings to life Greec's trubulant history. I have learned lots of new things about Greece as well as being entertained by a very skilled story teller.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Where does The Thread rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Set in Thessaloniki in northern Greece this book paints a vivid picture of life for the resident of the city during a very turbulent time in its history.
What did you like best about this story?
the people and the location also the historical background
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
One of the best books I have listened to. Beautifully written and it transports the listener into the lives of the characters.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
I did this book was very well written. I realise a lot was based on history which was very useful as I learnt a lot. I realise that historically the most awful series of events happened historically however The issue I have is that if pretty much anything could go wrong in the characters lives it did, it became predictable in the end. I felt fed up in the end listening to it. There were lots of occasions I could mention but I don't want to ruin it for others. I just found it very depressing, I really wish just sometimes something good could have happened to one of them.
That being said I think this lady narrator is fantastic, I have listened to her before. Her voices were excellent. I would recommend her thoroughly.
I really wish I could give it all five stars as the storyline was good, but as I say I found it very very negative.,
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
Another superb book by Victoria Hislop in which one not only becomes deeply involved with the characters but learns so much history. I love her books but my favourite is The Island.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
This book gave me a very thought provoking history of 20th century Thessalonica, with its traumas,natural and political, while involving me in a very moving story of a refugee family. It was carefully researched and well written. I did however find the poor pronunciatian of Greek names and places very irritating.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Victoria Hislop must spend a lot of time researching her background even before she starts writing. She has a wonderful way of getting across the background of an area without boring. I loved this book; as an embroiderer myself I was able to relate to Katarina and her life and was mesmerised by the swap over of Greeks and Turks and then the removal of Jews from Greece. I had no idea Thessaloniki had such a tragic history. Very highly recommended.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful