Luxor4u

One of the marks of a good novel for me is when I get to the end of it and I realise that I have learnt something along the way. This has been the case with The Return by Victoria Hislop.

When I started reading it I thought it was going to be a fairly run of the mill novel about a couple of women who had been friends for years, one with a crumbling marriage and the other single parent, both with a love and interest in dance. However, I soon began to realise that Victoria Hislop had used the modern lives of these women to pin her desire to write about the Spanish Civil War. I am not a historian, but I have every trust that the historical facts were well researched, and with that in mind, I am shocked that I previously knew so little about that period of [relatively] modern European history.

As with other books by this author, I have found her characters to be very believable and the novels to be real page turners. The sort of book you want to continue reading to the end to know how it all works out, whilst not wanting it to end.

I'll put that on my Kindle list.

I see she's a lover of Greece so "The Island" (2005) looks like another good read which would appeal to me.

Thoroughly recommend The Island. I usually never read a book more than once but I have read this 3 times. It is about the island of Spinalonga, the leper colony of the coast of Crete. If you have visited the island, it is even more poignant.

I've read all her books, she's a wonderful writer! Try 'The Thread', about the population swap between Turkey and Greece, and I defy you not to finish it without a tear in your eye!!! Also 'The Sunrise' about the partition of Cyprus.

The Island was the first Victoria Hislop book that I read. Another book that absorbed me, drawing me in to the life of the characters and again, a book with so much historical detail told in an a very interesting way.

I think I have written about The Sunrise before. It was another book that opened my eyes to modern history by reading about it through the lives of fictional characters.

The Thread may or may not be in my pile of yet to be read books. Perhaps I need to check and if it's not in the pile I can keep my eye out for it at book sales.

HEPZIBAH wrote:
The Thread may or may not be in my pile of yet to be read books. Perhaps I need to check and if it's not in the pile I can keep my eye out for it at book sales.

I've discovered that I do have a copy of the The Thread. I bought it without even checking what it was about, but just because I enjoy Victoria Hislop's writing and didn't recall the title It is now next in line to be read, after I've finished the Santa Montefore novel, Secrets of the Lighthouse, which I've just started.