The Thread
Victoria Hislop
Told as a story being told to a young man by his grandparents in Thessalonika, about how Katherina was rescued from Smyrna in 1917 by a young soldier, ended up in Thessalonika separated from her mother, taken in by another refugee family, and intertwined this story with that of a greedy materials supplier's family throughout the turmoil in Greece, the second world war, and all the uprisings afterwards, until love is discovered. I lived the story, could see the environment, and couldn't put it down.
We as a group found this book interesting, especially the history of the Greeks during their conflicts which included the civil, World War 1 and their fight with communism. We learnt a great deal about the country and it’s people. It was a clever book in which Victoria Hislop made her well written story fit the history of Greece and Thessaloniki, many authors do the opposite. The main story was about the people who lived Irini Street, their different nationalities and religions who lived side by side in harmony.
The among the characters were Katerina who was separated from her mother during an evacuation to Athens, in the confusion she arrived in Thessaloniki on her own, Eugenia another evacuee took care of her along with her own twin daughters, Maria and Sofia, so became her foster mother. They were allocated a house in Irini Street, where they met Olga Komninos, her son Dimitri and Paulina, who was her maid and companion. Olga was the wife of a rich cloth merchant Konstantious, their large house in the affluent area of Thessaloniki had burnt down and she lived in Irini Street whilst her husband rebuilt first his business then a palatial home for his family. Please note that the business came well before the comfort of his wife and son. Next door were the Jewish family of Roza and Saul Moreno, their sons Elias and Isaac, Saul had a tailoring business, so this is the beginning of ’The Thread’. Katerini became an expert needlewoman and worked at the Moreno tailoring workshop.
There are many tales ‘woven into’ the book but the story is the love between Dimitri and Katerina. In a section of the book Katernia believes Dimitri is dead and succumbs to the advances of the new owner of Moreno’s, Grigoris Gourgouris, who was a German collaborator and informer. When Katerina discovers his past she sets about killing her greedy repulsive husband by feeding him until he is so overweight he has a heart attack. (Murder)?
Victoria Hislop wrote the book as if Katerina and Dimitri were explaining their history to their grandson, which suited her style of writing.
Many of the group would recommend this book especially on the history of Greece and Thessaloniki.
Marks 6 (ranging from 6 - 9)
The Unicorn Road
Martin Davies
This book is an example of the author writing history to fit his book, it is an adventure story set in 1258 about a group of men searching for exotic beasts such as a Unicorn which were depicted in an ancient book. This was to gain favour with the Pope of that time in return for the right to a kingdom. The narrative of the book is written by the different characters that were either part or had connections with the convoy. It was a long and arduous journey as well as being a long and arduous book, with different tales woven into it.
Some of the group struggled, but kept going wanting to know what happened to all the characters and some persevered because it was a group read. Others thought the writing was beautiful and were surprised by it.
We follow a father looking for his son Benedict who went on the expedition with the scholar Antioch as his servant and companion, the father follows the route as best he can collecting information on the way.
Apart from Antioch and Benedict the other three main characters consisted of Decius, Venn, and Ming Yueh. The other characters who played important roles were the Gt. Khan, the evil Emperor, Lord Rustum, Leah of Kairouan, Song Rui and Pau. We came to understand Decius and the story of his wife Messalina; his looks didn’t show the man beneath. There was Venn who was a good man and befriended Benidect during the journey and kept him safe from harm on many occasion. Ming Yueh was a young woman in love with Song Rui a commander in the Emperor’s service; she was on her way to marry him and joined the convoy for protection. The very interesting side story of Ming Yueh was the writing on the women’s wall. Venn and Ming Yueh become lovers and plan to live their life together but events take place that this is not to be. There is such a sad ending in the book that some were enraged and others moved to tears.
Really the side story is about looking for the animals because if they found them, how would they capture and get them back, the book is about relationships.
Marks 6 (ranging from 5 - 7)
My best description is an intelligent juvenile fantasy. I cannot find many of the place names mentioned, though it sort of travels from Italy, via Basra to India and onwards, in search of fantasy animals like the unicorn. A Chinese love story is included. I cannot really get involved with it. The young man who is the centrepiece is almost a background character, overshadowed by others.
Two people loved it, and the rest when asked if they would have chosen it to read implied not, and that they only read it because it was a chosen Reading Group book. It was a book that had been retrieved from the basement storage of the library.
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