The Thread Victoria Hislop (Headline, £18.99) Victoria Hislop writes enthralling novels about southern Europe which retell modern history from the ordinary person’s point of view, especially the ordinary woman.
In this story, a young 21st-century Englishman asks his Greek grandparents, born in 1917, to tell him their story while they are still alive.
They have lived through events which tore apart families, neighbours and their city. “In Thessaloniki, people were well used to hearing different languages: Greek, Arabic, Ladino, French, English, Bulgarian, Russian and Serbian.”
But the country suffers waves of ethnic cleansing which ordinary people never wanted — “the Christians did everything they could to help their departing (Jewish) friends, just as had been done for the Muslims 20 years before.”
Katerina, the central figure, is a child refugee from Smyrna who becomes a brilliant needlewoman, witnesses atrocities and is pressured to marry one of the few available men. The threads are symbols of affectionate ties between people and communities, so often wrenched apart.
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