But woven into this human drama is a one-sided account of the history of the period, and a crude and unremittingly hostile portrayal of the Greek communists in particular, who led the resistance against the Italian and German occupations and later fought British and American-backed forces in the civil war of the late 40s. A lengthy read but I honestly could have kept on going - so much interesting history on the Greeks, Italians and Germans in WW2 that I was unaware of. We are at war with Louis de Bernières,” explains Lefteris Eleftheratos, a 72-year-old former Cephalonian journalist and unofficial leader of the Greek campaign against the novel. Although this book has parts that needed more of an authorative edit, its long-form nature is also its strength.

However, he finds he cannot do so without getting angry about the numerous Greek conquests, so he amends his title to read "A Personal History of Cephalonia. I liked how little I knew about this book before I read it, so I won't say too much in the way of plot. For months the Italians march in the cold and the wet as Greek forces pick them off at their leisure.The Italians that survived the fighting were murdered in what became one of the largest prisoner of war massacres of World War Two. On June 5, 1944, the Germans hanged five resistance members in the main square because the andartes had killed a collaborator. Louis de Bernières: The Essential Guide: "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", "Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman", "Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord", . His experiences in Colombia influenced his first three novels, known collectively as the Latin American Trilogy.

Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a historical fiction that encompasses symbolism, character development and evolving relationships with a look at WWII that is frequently overlooked, the disrupted but mundane lives of those touched by the war in less horrific ways than concentration camps and mass executions. Bakhtin valued "polyphony" because it seemed a rebellion against the narrative habits of 19th-century fiction (and implicitly the strictures of the socialist realism being recommended in the Soviet Union).Such reactions can come as something of a surprise to foreign readers for whom the novel’s historical backdrop has little of the neuralgic resonance it has for Greeks. A party of 12 people was picked from my village, Mousata, by the resistance and sent to fight the Germans in Omala near the monastery of St Gerasimos.

For example, his comment on the movie version of this book: "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy about its baby's ears being put on backwards. Far from killing Italians who escaped the German slaughter, the resistance - including the parents of Dionisis Georgatos, Cephalonia’s present-day governor - hid them and helped spirit them off the island. The relationship flourishes when Pelagia’s fiancé, Mandras, traumatised by the Greek-Italian war of 1940-1941, goes off to fight with the partisans on the mainland. In the fall he sends his delegate Grazzi to deliver an ultimatum to Metaxas, the prime minister of Greece. What's not to love about a beautiful Greek isle, and the gripping story of how WWII came for an extended staycation?Both he and his brother, like thousands of others, refused an offer of release if they signed a statement renouncing communism. Some critique it for uneven performance, or perhaps journeying past what would have made a moving and satisfying end point. the severity of the war contrasts so poignantly with the simplicity and good humour of everyday life. For perspective, I feel this way about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and do not feel it about Lord of the Rings.

A fellow partisan who doesn't believe Hector tells Mandras that the main point Hector makes is that if they don't obey him, they'll die. Because of this, she's not surprised when Antonia marries an older radical lawyer, Alexi, and claims to be communist. He asks the musician Spiridon to teach him the bouzouki, but Spiridon suggests Iannis pick up a mandolin first.

Both Greeks and Italian survivors testify that not only did the resistance give practical and armed support to the Italian troops, but 15 andartes lost their lives in the fighting. The story is cleverly unfolded and you are drawn along by the impacts of the war on all the characters, richly described as he executes his plot. The problem is that it just dragged on and on, and while the characters were realistic and fully fleshed out, I just didn’t relate to them. Iannis refuses to provide a dowry, suggests Mandras is too uneducated to appreciate Pelagia, and counsels that they should wait to get married until after the war.